15th Wisconsin Legislature

The Fifteenth Wisconsin Legislature convened from January 8, 1862, to April 7, 1862, in regular session, and re-convened from June 3, 1862, through June 17, 1862. The legislature further convened in a special session from September 10, 1862, through September 26, 1862.

This was the first legislative session after the expansion and redistricting of the Senate and Assembly according to an act of the previous session. The Senate grew from 30 to 33 seats; the Assembly grew from 97 to 100 seats.

Senators representing even-numbered districts were newly elected for this session and were serving the first year of a two-year term. Assembly members were elected to a one-year term. Assembly members and odd-numbered senators were elected in the general election of November 8, 1861. Senators representing odd-numbered districts were serving the second year of their two-year term, having been elected in the general election held on November 6, 1860, or were elected in the 1861 election for a newly created district and were serving a one-year term.^[1]

The governor of Wisconsin during the first regular session of this legislative term was Republican Louis P. Harvey, of Rock County, who was serving the first year of a two-year term, having won election in the 1861 Wisconsin gubernatorial election. Harvey died in an accident on April 19, 1862, after visiting Wisconsin Union Army volunteers at the site of the Battle of Shiloh, in Tennessee. At that time, the lieutenant governor, Republican Edward Salomon, of Manitowoc County, then ascended to become governor for the remainder of this legislative term.