The name was originally BAYARD but it is sometimes found as BAIRD or BARD or BEARD.

From Unknown Paper:
Died, Saturday evening, after a lingering illness, James Baird. Mr. Baird was an old and respected pioneer of Dupont.

The Marion Advertiser, Friday, Feb 4, 1898
A PIONEER DEAD
James Baird, one of Dupont's old pioneers, and G. A. R. comrades, died last Saturday, and was buried Tuesday by L. Ramsdell Post G. A. R., under the directorship of Commander A. S. McDonald. Rev. Soule delivered the funeral sermon, which was well received at the M. E. church. Although the weather was cold, the church was well filled, and a large number of people followed the remains to the cemetery. Mr. Baird was born in Indiana, April 22, 1839, and when 14 years of age he left his parental home, and located in Racine, but in 1857 he had become a resident of New London, where he enlisted for three years, and was discharged at Camp Randall in 1864. Two years later he married Maria Spaulding at New London, and moved to Dupont in 1869. He leaves a wife and eight children, all living at or near their old homestead two miles south of Marion.

Suggested by Sherry Johnson:
When the Civil War broke out after the fall of Fort Sumter in April of 1861, President Lincoln called for troops from the state militias to put down the rebellion. Wisconsin Governor Alexander Randall, a strong abolitionist, promptly pledged that first regiment to the Union cause, and more to come. The second regiment organized in Madison, and Camp Randall was rapidly established for them.

Just a few years before the war, in 1858 and 1860, the camp's flat open area on what was then the west side of Madison had hosted the Wisconsin State Fair. With the outbreak of war, the Wisconsin Agricultural Society provided its fairground to be used as a training camp. Some of the new recruits bunked in what had been the State Fair's cattle sheds, while others lived in tents. The fair's machinery exhibit building was converted to a mess hall that could feed 3,000 men at a time. And the fair's Floral Hall held the hospital and officers' quarters. Some fair sheds housed cavalry animals, and other buildings were constructed. 45 barracks buildings were each 80 by 20 feet, with bunks three high, each housing up to 100 men. An eight foot fence surrounded the 10-acre camp, with two manned gates. One of those gates was where the Memorial Arch stands now.

The typical recruits' day at Camp Randall began at 5am with a cannon shot that woke thousands. The recruits' mornings and afternoons were largely spent drilling - learning marching, muskets, cooking in the field, and discipline. Most of the recruits were young unmarried fellows, seventeen to twenty-one years old, with no military experience. In some cases older veterans of the Mexican War or European wars ran the drills for the green recruits. Once the recruits had uniforms, a dress parade was common in the evening, sometimes admired by visitors from town. Later in the candle-lit barracks men played cards, told stories, sang, read newspapers, and read letters from home.

A company from Eau Claire bought a young bald eagle on their way to Camp Randall, and he became Old Abe, the famous mascot of the 8th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. Less well-known, a pet black bear named Bruin came along to Camp Randall with Harlan Squires, a 16-year-old recruit from Delton. Bruin became a mascot and pet of the 12th Regiment. They built him a shelter at Camp Randall and a 12-foot post to climb while they trained.

But not all was noble, orderly, and whimsical. Soldiers wrote home complaining of fleas in their straw bedding, of cold guard duty in January, and of getting sick from being fed spoiled beef. Some caused a ruckus in town while out on pass. Some spent their idle time drinking and gambling. Some even spent time locked in the guardhouse.

Training for a regiment lasted "from a few weeks to two months or more." When training finished and the early regiments left for duty, they were celebrated with speeches from notables, brass bands, church bells, and large crowds.

The units that mustered at Camp Randall fought in important battles of the war, including the First Battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, and the Wilderness campaign, and many gave their lives. Fresh replacement troops to fill in for soldiers lost or discharged were also trained at Camp Randall. As surviving Wisconsin soldiers completed their tours, which were now three years, most of the troops that trained at Camp Randall returned there for mustering out.