Today we celebrate the University of Wisconsin-Madison's homecoming football game, at Camp Randall football stadium. I recently walked around campus to take this photo of our fierce new badger statue. His claws and teeth are pretty impressive up close! The badger is our school mascot, though the mascot himself is more fun than fierce.
But Camp Randall was originally a Civil War training ground. More than 70,000 state soldiers trained here to defend the union from 1861-1865. This memorial arch, dedicated to our Civil War soldiers was completed in 1912.
On a more personal note, I'm reminded that an old friend, one who died far too young, was a Civil War reenactment buff. And I heard that after he died, his family arranged to have his ashes scattered here at Camp Randall during one of the Civil War ceremonies. So today, I think of him as well.
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