by BERSVEN NELSON translated and edited by C. A. CLAUSEN 6 Trotes of a Civil War Soldier '""T^HE government of our adopted country is in danJ - ger. That which we learned to love as freemen in our Old Fatherland - our freedom, our government, our independence - is threatened with destruction. Is it not our duty as brave and intelligent citizens to extend our hands in defense of our country and our homes?" 1 Thus read in part an appeal to Scandinavians in the Northwest to join the Union forces, and more especially the Fifteenth Wisconsin, "the Scandinavian Regiment," which was being organized in the fall of 1861 with the full endorsement of the governor of the state, Alexander W. Randall. The author of the appeal was the Honorable Hans C. Heg who on October 1 had been commissioned colonel of the proposed unit. Recruiting went on with enthusiasm in Wisconsin and neighboring states. In December the nucleus of the regiment was mustered in at Camp Randall near Madison, and the following month its membership reached the required minimum . Though the appeal had been made to Scandinavians in general, the composition of the regiment turned out to be more than ninety percent Norwegian, a statistic that is not surprising, in view of the fact that most of its promoters were 1 Quoted in Theodore C. Biegen, ed., The Civil War Letters of Colonel Hans Christian Heg , 23 (Northfield, Minnesota, 1936). 118 NOTES OF A SOLDIEB of Norse blood. It was classified as a Wisconsin organization, and the bulk of the recruits lived in that state, but appreciable additions came from Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. Among those who joined the Fifteenth Wisconsin in 1861 was Bersven (Ben) Nelson, newly arrived from Norway. He evidently kept a close record of his wartime experiences; but internal evidence indicates that his notes were not put into final form until years later. The first part of his record is translated here. We feel that it throws light on various aspects of soldier life during the Civil War.2 1. FROM NORWAY TO AMERICA May, 1861 On May 9, 1861, my parents, with eleven children, left our home in the Maalselv Valley (Finmark) and set off for America. The next oldest son had crossed the ocean the previous year; the oldest one had also been in the United States, but he had returned to the homeland. On the 12th, we boarded a steamer at Molsnes; we arrived at Trondhjem on the morning of the 17th. Thus we had the opportunity of witnessing the Seventeenth of May celebration in Trondhjem, which was quite elaborate. That evening we took a boat for Bergen, where we arrived on May 20th. There we boarded the sailing vessel Camilla, which was all set to depart for America with emigrants. We left Bergen on May 25th and arrived in Quebec on July 9th. The voyage went well; except for seasickness, all of us were in good health. 2 Bersven Nelson's "Civil War Notes" ( Optegnelser fra borgerkrigen) are found complete in Waldemar Ager, Oberst Heg og hans gutter , 15-61 (Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 1916). The following also deal in whole or in part with the history of the Fifteenth Wisconsin Regiment: J. A. Johnson, Det skandinaviske regiments historie (La Crosse, Wisconsin, 1869); O. A. Buslett , Det f erntende regiment Wisconsin frivillige (Decorah, Iowa, 1895); P. G. Dietrichson, En kortfattet skildring af det f erntend e Wisconsins regiments historie og virksomhed under borgerkrigen (Chicago, 1884); Theodore C. Biegen, Norwegian Migration to America: The American Transition, 390-400 (Northfield, 1940); Waldemar Ager, "The Fifteenth Wisconsin," in the American-Scandinavian Review , 3:325-33 (November-December, 1915); Agnes M. Larson, John A. Johnson: An Uncommon American , 4143 , 52-56, 60-61, 280-83 (Northfield, 1969). 119 Bersven Nelson Because a great number of English soldiers had just arrived to guard the boundary between the United States and Canada , we would either have to wait a while or take a boat across the Great Lakes. We chose to do the latter, but the trip took much longer than we had expected. We did not get to our destination, La Crosse, until July 16th. There we remained for...