Amy Vach
Catalog Number: 1965.003.18
Objects tell stories. At the La Crosse County Historical Society, we don’t just collect old stuff. We collect the stories that are told and remembered through objects connected to this region. Many times, families donate items to LCHS to preserve their story. Today’s Things that Matter is no different. This sword tells the story of an early La Crosse Mayor and Captain who died during the Civil War, and how his family and comrades remembered him.
In the late 1850s, Wilson Colwell moved to La Crosse from Kittanning, Pennsylvania. Cowell brought his wealth with him and established La Crosse’s first bank, Katanyan Bank, at the corner of Third and Main Streets.
Shortly after his arrival, 30-year-old Wilson married nearly 17-year-old Nannie Hammer. Wilson and Nannie had a daughter they named Nannie.
Colwell briefly served as the sixth mayor of La Crosse. However, in April 1861, he left his position to lead the La Crosse Light Guard, a private local militia, into service for the Civil War. Wilson’s young family, his wife, Nannie, and his daughter followed as Company B went to Washington, D.C.
During their time at the Capitol, Capt. Colwell and his wife attended a presidential reception at the White House, where they met President Lincoln and his wife, Mary.
After a bout of illness, Nannie and her young daughter returned to La Crosse to be with family and friends. While in La Crosse, she learned that her husband had been killed at the Battle of South Mountain in September of 1862. Capt. Colwell’s remains were never returned to La Crosse, but this sword was returned to his young widow.
Five years later, Nannie married Rev. Charles Dorset, and they had three children, Marian, Helen, and Bernard. The family moved around over the years but eventually returned to La Crosse.
Nannie Colwell Dorset saved her first husband’s sword and the midnight-blue velvet dress she wore to visit the Lincolns. Even after her death, these objects were prized possessions of her children.
In 1882, La Crosse’s Grand Army of the Republic post was founded and named in honor of their fallen comrade, Capt. Wilson Colwell. The GAR was a fraternal organization composed of Union veterans who served during the Civil War.
Upon the death of Helen Dorset in 1965, Captain Colwell’s sword and other items from the Colwell-Dorset family were donated to the La Crosse County Historical Society. By making this donation, the family preserved an important part of their history and made sure that Colwell’s valor and sacrifice would not be forgotten.
This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on November 19, 2020.
This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.
