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Home » Press Releases » WI National Guard: Happy birthday, Wisconsin National Guard
On Jan. 17, 1838, the 1st Wisconsin Territorial Assembly approved legislation requiring free, able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45 to serve in the territorial militia. But 10 months earlier, territorial governor Henry Dodge commissioned Morgan L. Martin as a captain and commander of the Green Bay Rangers. That date — March 5, 1837 — is considered the birth of the Wisconsin National Guard....