From the earliest days of the Republic, New Glarus has been home to men and women who stepped forward when their nation needed them. The service of New Glarus’ veterans spans continents and centuries, each generation adding its own chapter to a long legacy of courage and sacrifice.

Even before New Glarus was founded, the spirit of service was already part of the history of this land. Robert Bailey, a veteran of the American Revolution, was buried south of New Glarus and west of Monticello in Shooks Prairie Cemetery—a quiet reminder that Wisconsin’s roots in America’s fight for freedom run deep.

In the decades that followed but before settlers from Switzerland would arrive, the New Glarus countryside would feel the cadence of marching troops. During the Black Hawk War of 1832, soldiers in pursuit of Chief Black Hawk followed the Old Lead Road—today’s County Highway NN—through what is now New Glarus Woods State Park. Two men who fought in that war who would later make history again on opposite sides of a divided nation three decades later: Abraham Lincoln, who became the 16th President of the United States, and Jefferson Davis, who would lead the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. Others who fought in Blackhawk War include Zachary Taylor, who became the 12th President of the United States, and Nathan Boone, son of the famous frontiersman Daniel Boone.