The 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry was recruited in the late summer of 1861. The regiment's ten companies assembled at Camp Randall near the state capital at Madison, where they mustered into federal service on September 13, 1861. Company C from Eau Claire furnished the 8th Wisconsin with a unique mascot, a young bald eagle named "Old Abe" in honor of President Abraham Lincoln. A Chippewa Indian, who traded him to a white family for half a bushel of corn, had captured old Abe. Company C purchased him for $2.50. With Old Abe's arrival, the 8th Wisconsin became known as the "Eagle Regiment."

Designated as the 8th Wisconsin's color company, Company C always entered combat at the center of the regiment's line of battle. Instead of going to the rear when danger threatened, Old Abe led the Eagle Regiment into the fray from the front rank of the color guard. A brave and reliable soldier appointed as "eagle bearer" would carry Old Abe on a specially constructed perch between the 8th Wisconsin's national color and state color. Excited by booming cannon, rattling musketry, and the cheers of his human comrades, Old Abe would spread his wings and screech, which never failed to inspire the men of the Eagle Regiment.

The 8th Wisconsin received its first taste of active service in Missouri, and it helped capture Island No. 10 in the spring of 1862. Transferring to the eastern side of the Mississippi, it joined in defending Corinth, Mississippi, on October 3 and 4, 1862. In the first day's fighting, a Rebel bullet clipped three feathers from one of Old Abe's wings, and another cut the cord tethering him to his perch. The 8th Wisconsin figured conspicuously in the Vicksburg Campaign in 1863. The following year, it participated in the Meridian Campaign, Red River Campaign, and Battle of Nashville. The regiment ended the war at the Siege of Mobile, and it mustered out in central Alabama on September 5, 1865.

Having survived thirty-six engagements, Old Abe resided in the basement of the Wisconsin state capitol, where he died in 1881. His legacy revived during World War II, when the U.S. Army's newly created 101st Airborne Division adopted his likeness for its famous "Screaming Eagles" shoulder patch. Thus Old Abe continues to inspire the bravest of America's soldiers.

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