15th
Wisconsin Infantry
Local Troops
part of Scandinavian unit
“In 1861,
when Wisconsin’s leading Norwegian-American issued a call to arms, Stoughton
responded, sending a company of immigrants and immigrants’ sons to fight for
their newly-adopted land. The
Stoughton men became Company B of the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer
Infantry – the “All Scandinavian Regiment,” led by its founder, Hans Christian
Heg, who resigned as state prison commissioner to become colonel of the
regiment.
Heg had been
born in Norway near Kristiana in 1829, coming to America with his family in
1839. Settling in Muskego, Wisconsin,
the Heg family’s homestead became one of the stopping-off places for the many
other Norwegian immigrants who were then coming into Wisconsin.
As a teenager,
Hans guided many of these parties to the burgeoning Norwegian settlements,
including the fertile Koshkonong Prairie near Stoughton. In 1848 he joined the California gold rush,
returning home in 1851 after the death of his father.
Heg soon
became a leading citizen, joining the new Republican Party. Defeated in his first campaign, in 1860 he
was elected Wisconsin prison commissioner, the first Norwegian-American to win
a state office.
When the
Civil War broke out Heg determined to found an all-Scandinavian unit and found
a ready response among the Wisconsin immigrant community. The regiment was officially mustered into the
army on Feb. 14, 1862.
The regiment
was predominately Norwegian, and many of the new soldiers had not yet learned
English. The regimental history,
compiled after the war, is written in Norwegian.
There were
more than 128 men named Ole in the regiment, including three Ole Andersons in
the Stoughton company, one from Stoughton, one from Dunkirk and one from Door
Creek.
The captain
of Company B was also an Ole, the Norwegian-born Ole Johnson of Stoughton, who
would assume command of the regiment when Heg was promoted to lead the brigade.
The regiment
and its commanders compiled an admirable record for courage and bravery
throughout the war, starting along the Mississippi in the Island #10 and Fort
Henry and Donelson campaigns.
When the Confederate
General Braxton Bragg and his Army of Tennessee invaded Kentucky in September,
1862, the 15th was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland,
fighting with distinction at Perryville, Stone’s River and later in the Atlanta
campaign.
The regiment’s
most dramatic role came in the battles around Chattanooga in the fall of 1863,
when the Army of the Cumberland underwent its great tragedy and redemption.
In August,
1863, General William Rosecrans led his army out of its base in Chattanooga,
determined to match the great July victories of the eastern and western Union
armies at Gettysburg and Vicksburg.
The
soldiers, too, were anxious to do their share, and were ready for battle when
the two armies met near Chickamauga Creek in northern Georgia.
The first
day’s battle on Sept. 19 went well for the Union forces, as they withstood many
furious Confederate attacks. There was
tragedy for the Scandinavian regiment, however, as their own Colonel Heg fell
mortally wounded while leading the brigade in a counterattack.
Heg had
earned a great reputation for personal bravery, always at the head of his men
and regardless to the bullets flying around him. A statue now stands at the southeast corner
of the Capitol square in Madison.
More tragedy
would follow on Sept. 20, when the Scandinavians and the rest of the army fell
victim to their own leader’s blunders.”
Excerpted
from Stoughton Courier Hub, Syttende Mai Section One, Insert, May 12, 1994
The 15th Regiment, Wisconsin Infantry was organized at Madison, Wisconsin and mustered in February 14, 1862. Company B mustered out December 1, 1864.
The Regiment lost during service 8 Officers and 86 Enlisted men killed and mortally wounded. Also 1 Officer and 241 Enlisted men were lost by disease.
National Park Service, The Civil War, Battle Unit Details
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