edited by MILLARD L. GIESKE 2 Some Civil War Letters of Knute Nelson Knute Republican Nelson, politician for many in years Minnesota, a leading was and born, powerful an ilRepublican politician in Minnesota, was born, an illegitimate child, in 1842 at Evanger, district of Voss, Norway. His parents were Ingeborg Kvilekval and Helge Knutson Styve. He emigrated to the United States with his mother in 1849, reaching New York in July. The two lived briefly in Chicago at the home of John Haldorson Kvilekval, Ingeborg's brother. Then, in 1850, Nelson's mother married another Norwegian immigrant, Nils Olson Gr0tland, who later took the surname Tangen and eventually changed that to Nelson. Soon after the marriage, the family went to Wisconsin to live, and in the spring of 1852 acquired a farm in the Norwegian Koshkonong settlement near Deerfield, in Dane County. At this time Knute took the surname of Nelson, though he was occasionally called Knute Tangen. Prior to his adoption by Nils Nelson he was known as Knute Helgeson: that is, the son of Helge Styve. In the Koshkonong settlement, young Knute experienced the trials and deprivations of frontier living. And although an aggressive youth, he was closely attached to his mother and stepfather and to William and Henry, his two half brothers, who were born in themid-1850's.1 1 Nelson believed that he was born February 2, 1843, but his baptismal certificate shows the correct year to be 1842; photocopies in the Nelson Papers, 17 Millard L. Gieske The young Nelson was both typical and atypical of the emigrant frontiersman. He had a natural curiosity about the larger world about him, and this, wedded to a quick mind and a yearning for education and economic betterment, served as the foundation for the emergence of a personality strongly attracted to public life. Still, Nelson's first twenty years were difficult. In 1858 he entered Albion Academy, a Seventh-Day Baptist institution in Albion, Dane County, Wisconsin, and there worked for his schooling for three years.2 He was interrupted by the Civil War. Nelson eventually came to value the conflict as an integral element in his education . His military service proved useful to him after his entry into political contests, because of the normal popularity of the veteran. And he had an innate bluntness that he exuded to public and politician alike. He served three terms in the lower house of Congress, 1883-89; he was governor of Minnesota from 1893 until his resignation in 1895; and he was United States Senator from that time until his death in 1923. He was never defeated in an election.3 Nelson enlisted in the Fourth Wisconsin Volunteers late in May, 1861, one of nineteen Albion students, reflecting the intense patriotism that permeated their small campus, to join the armed forces. They began to train for military service at Racine, Wisconsin, and on July 15 left for Baltimore and the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Norwegian-American Historical Association Archives. For his early life, see Brynjulf N. Hugaas to Laurits B. Swenson, December 25, 1924, Nelson Papers (box 261) ; Leiv Slinde, Krmte Nelson : Fra fattiggut til verdskjent statsmann (Oslo, 1950) . A sketch of Nelson is in Dictionary of American Biography , 13: 418. See also K. A. Rene, Historie om udvandringer fra Foss og vossingerne i Amerika , 382, 502-506 (Madison, Wisconsin, 1930) ; Mary B. Dillon to Nelson, May 6, 1878, Nelson Papers. There is a story that Nelson's father was Ivar Nilson Evanger, in whose household Ingeborg was employed. Evanger's mother objected to her son's marriage to one beneath his station and hired Styve, a somewhat bibulous vagabond, to assume the responsibility of parenthood. See Knut A. Rene, "Min tur til Norge 1947," in Vossingen: Tidsskrift for Vosselaget, 49-54 (May, 1950) . 2 Nelson cut wood, built fires, and took care of the principal's horse. Every two weeks he walked fourteen miles home for provisions. After the war he returned to Albion, then entered a law office in Madison. A. R. Cornwall, principal of Albion Academy, to Alexandria Post , December 4, 1874. See also Martin W. Ödland, The Life of Knute Nelson , 19-23 (Minneapolis...