William M. Blanding. William Martin Blanding (1829-1901), from Saint Croix Falls, was the Polk County judge from 1862 to 1866. Originally from Ohio, he moved to Saint Croix Falls in 1850 and engaged in lumbering and farming. Blanding served as a lieutenant in the Home Guards during the Civil War. In addition to being the county judge, his public service included probate judge, county commissioner, supervisor, school trustee, and register of the U.S. land office in Saint Croix Falls.
Captain Benjamin F. Copper was born about 1815 in Missouri. In the 1860 census he was living, with his family, in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, where he was a lumberman. He was the Provost Marshal for this part of Wisconsin and The Prescott Journal, June 17, 1863, had this to say of Cooper, “a Wisconsin river lumberman, a man of conservative principles, but radical business habits, and he will put the draft through if called on, vigorously as he would run a raft during a ‘fresh.’”
The Civil War and Northwest Wisconsin 
John & Jane Ann (Shellito) Bates family, of Crawford Co PA came to Rock Elm, Pierce Co WI appx 1850. Their son, William F. Bates, a farm boy, enlisted Feb1862 MN ;1st Inf and died 7/02/63 with Col. Wm Colvill in Command on the last charge of what a remained of MN 1st that helped turn the battle and save the Union on that day.
How many other Pierce Co boys enlisted in MN
We’re working on compiling a list of boys from our area who enlisted in Minnesota regiments: https://thecivilwarandnorthwestwisconsin.wordpress.com/the-soldiers/soldiers-from-northwest-wisconsin-serving-in-minnesota-regiments/. It’s hard to confirm, though, because the Minnesota records mostly list them as being from a Minnesota village — usually the town they crossed the river to enlist at.