Public Affairs Committee
101st Airborne Division Association
Fort Campbell, KY
January 10, 2006
LEGENDARY ‘OLD ABE,’
STILL SOARS WITH EAGLES
Public Affairs Committee Special Report
Researched and Written by Ken Hesler
A legendary eagle veteran of more than 30 combat engagements during the Civil War, two battle wounds, and a Confederate “wanted dead or alive” price on his head provided the inspiration for the Screaming Eagle insignia of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
The 101st Airborne Division Association, whose veterans and active duty members have worn the Screaming Eagle shoulder patch in every major conflict from World War II to Iraq, proclaims it “the most recognized division insignia in the world.”
The patch, with its white eagle’s head and a gold beak on a black shield topped with a crescent-shaped “Airborne” tab, made its official debut in 1942, but its origins are rooted in Wisconsin history. Those beginnings are outlined in a fact sheet from the Pratt Museum at Fort Campbell, KY, home of the 101st.
In1861, Chief Sky of the Chippewa tribe captured a young bald eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus to be precise, along the Flambeau River in northern Wisconsin. He sold the bird for a bushel of corn to a local citizen who, in turn, sold it to the commanding officer of a militia company that became known as the “Eau Claire Eagles.”
When the Eagle militia unit entered Federal service, it was designated Company C, of the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Eventually, the Company’s mascot became the Regiment’s mascot and the 8th Wisconsin was nicknamed the “Eagle Regiment.”
The fighting spirit of the screaming eagle mascot was established early. The soldiers named him “Old Abe” in honor of President Lincoln and assigned him as a member of the regimental color guard. A 1982 reprint of a 1942 “Army Times” article in the 101st Association magazine describes his behavior:
“History records that he never once disgraced his name or his position. His perch was the American shield and a Sergeant carried him between the Stars and Stripes and the regimental standard. Soldiers fed him with chicken and it is reported that he was not particular when it came to whether or not they were cooked.
“During battle, he would fly into the air as far as his tether would permit, screaming and screeching above the battlefield and encouraging the unit to greater deeds than they themselves thought they were capable.”
Although Old Abe was wounded twice, E. B. Quiner writes in his 1866 “Military History of Wisconsin” that those injuries were not serious. “The bird has been more than once the mark for rebel bullets, but luckily has escaped unharmed, with the exception of the loss of a few feathers shot away,” he notes.
As to the Confederate threat on Old Abe’s life, the statement is attributed to General. Sterling Price at the Battle of Corinth, MS, in October 1862. “That bird must be captured or killed at all hazards. I would rather get that eagle than capture a whole brigade or a dozen battle flags,” said Gen. Price.
Following the inactivation of the Eagle Regiment in 1865, its veterans gave Old Abe to the people of Wisconsin. His last years were filled with travels across the country to appear at veteran reunions, patriotic events, fairs, and conventions. Ample testimony of War Eagle’s post-war popularity is scattered throughout an abundance of Old Abe historical articles.
Sales of his photograph at the 1865 Chicago Fair realized $16,000, a sizeable sum in today’s dollars. He appeared as an “honored guest” at a Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R) encampment with General U.S. Grant and attended in 1868 the convention that nominated Grant for the presidency. He was a celebrity whose presence is still manifest in monuments, pamphlets, and Internet websites.
One statue sits atop the 122-foot Wisconsin Memorial at the Vicksburg (MS) National Military Park. Others are located about the nation. In June 2005, an honor guard from the 101st Airborne Division participated in the dedication of a new monument featuring Old Abe at Fredericktown, MO, the site of the Eagle Regiment’s first Civil War engagement.
The 101st Association has proclaimed him as “The Original Screaming Eagle” and lists him among the seven former members honored in memoriam that include Generals William C. Lee, Maxwell Taylor, and Anthony C. McAuliffe.
In Madison, he had quarters in the basement of the Wisconsin State Capitol where he died in 1881 from the fumes of a small fire near his room. He was stuffed and placed on exhibit in the Capitol building until a fire destroyed his body in 1904. However, replicas of Old Abe are still on display in the room where the Wisconsin State Assembly meets and at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
In 1921, the legend of Old Abe and the 101st unit designation began to merge. The 101st Division of World War I had been organized at Camp Shelby, MS, in November 1918 and demobilized the following month with the conclusion of the war. Nearly three years later, it was reconstituted and organized as the 101st Division of the Organized Reserves with headquarters at Milwaukee, WI.
An early 101st Division insignia with a white eagle over flames on a royal blue shield was apparently worn for a period prior to 1923. In that year, a new version was approved for the Organized Reserves unit in accordance with the following description from the Secretary of War:
“SHIELD: 2 ˝ inches in height, sable the head of a bald eagle erased proper. The design is based on one of the Civil War traditions of the State of Wisconsin, this State being the territory of this division. The black shield recalls the old “Iron Brigade” one of whose regiments possessed “Old Abe” the famous war eagle.” Civil War records do not show the 8th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment as part of the “Iron Brigade,” originally known as the “Black Hat Brigade.”
With World War II already underway, the 101st Division, Organized Reserve, was disbanded August 15, 1942, and a new airborne unit constituted on the inactive list the same day. One day later, Augusts 16, the 101st Airborne Division was born, with Old Abe still on the insignia but now topped with the “Airborne” tab.
The Division soon acquired its first of two eagle mascots, “Young Abe.” A pictorial biography of the 101st compiled in France in 1945, identifies Young Abe as a direct descendant of Old Abe. It describes him as “the flesh-and-blood counterpart of the division’s ‘Screaming Eagle’ shoulder patch.”
Only two weeks old when captured, Young Abe had been sent to a Wisconsin state game farm where he stayed until presented to the airborne soldiers of the 321st Glider Field Artillery Battalion, many of whom came from Wisconsin, according to the 1948 edition of “Rendezvous With Destiny.” The battalion, in turn, presented him to the Division. However, he was never to see combat with his division.
“Perhaps he had been inducted too late in life, and found it impossible to adapt himself to the rugged conditions of training in an airborne division. Without apparent cause, he died July 6 at Fort Bragg. It was a lonely death, for the Division was far away on the Tennessee maneuvers.”
The 101st obtained its second and last eagle mascot, in 1956. Named “Bill Lee I” in honor of the division’s first commanding general, Maj. Gen. William C. Lee, the new mascot died less than a year later. A division history published in 1995 reports that “he was killed by an unknown hoodlum.”
But today after more than 63 years, the legendary Old Abe still soars with the Screaming Eagles of the 101st Airborne Division.
(Sources for this “Old Abe” report include the following: Pratt Museum, Fort Campbell, KY; 101st Airborne Division Association (“Rendezvous With Destiny,” a 1948 history of the Division and the Screaming Eagle magazine), Fort Campbell, KY; Wisconsin Veterans Museum, Madison, WI; Historic Milwaukee Veterans Administration, Milwaukee, WI; Chief Clerk’s Office, Wisconsin State Assembly, Madison, WI; ‘The Epic of the 101st Airborne,” a pictorial biography published by the Division, 1945; and the 1995 history,“101st Airborne Division,” published by Turner Publishing Company, Paducah, KY.)
Public Affairs Committee
101st Airborne Division Association
Fort Campbell, KY
Information Reference Attached Old Abe Report Images
…Courtesy Snyder’s Treasures
Early 101st Division felt patch, with white eagle on royal blue shield over yellow flames, was worn for some period between 1921 and 1923.
Young Abe, (photo from “Epic of 101st Airborne” published at the close of World War II), was presented to Division in 1942. He died the following year.
The basic patch of the101st Division, Organized Reserves, was approved in May 1923 and worn until its inactivation in 1942.
The 101st Airborne Division patch approved following activation in 1942, with the “Airborne” tab added to the insignia of the inactivated 101st Division, Organized Reserves.