Company Rosters

This page contains links to the official rosters of the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment.  Some 906 men served in the 15th during its 3 year existence.  All were volunteers.  Over half died of wounds or disease, or were so physically crippled that the army gave them disability discharges.  By the end of the 3 years only some 300 were still with the regiment.  The rosters below will tell you who these men were, and a little bit about what happened to them.

If you are searching for a specific soldier and do not know what part of the 15th he served in, and/or you do not know his rank, then you may have to search all the individual rosters to find him.  Information on where the 15th was recruited from is included to assist you.

Here are some things you should know before you use this roster:

• It is based on the official roster published by the State of Wisconsin in 1886.  It includes a list of all the officers and enlisted men officially assigned to this company of the 15th Wisconsin at one time or another during its 3 year existence.  The 1886 roster was issued, in part, for use in securing military service pensions.  It is considered to be the most accurate roster available of Wisconsin’s Civil War soldiers and sailors. NAGC & NL has added names to this official 1886 roster from other sources and contributors.
• Beware of factual and spelling errors in this roster.  Some have been identified; others have not.  Some errors result from mistakes made when the official roster was transcribed to this page; when identified these errors are corrected by this site’s webmaster.  Other errors are present in the original official roster published by the State of Wisconsin; none of these errors have been corrected on this page.  When an error in the official roster has been identified and documented, this site’s webmaster will add the correct information [within brackets] where the error appears on this page.  If you suspect or are aware of an error on this page, please contact the webmaster.  Thank you.
• Beware of variations in soldiers’ names.  While some of the 15th’s soldiers used their birth names when they enlisted, many dropped their farm name and others enlisted using ‘Americanized’ first names.  Some enlisted under different names at the urging of Army officials, who suggested this as a way to eliminate duplicate names.
• The left column lists the military ranks and the names of the men who held them in this company.  Like the official roster, the roster on this page is arranged by military rank, from highest to lowest.  Officers are listed in the order they held a specific rank; enlisted men are arranged alphabetically by last name.  Note: names that appear in the color red are links that can be clicked on to open a separate page containing a detailed profile of that soldier.
• The Residence column lists the town or city where the soldier was living when he joined the 15th.  All are located in the State of Wisconsin, unless otherwise noted.
• The Rank From/Enlisted column lists the date each officer first officially held the rank shown (rank from) and the date each enlisted man enlisted in the 15th.

Source: These rosters are transcribed from the originals as published by the State of Wisconsin in “Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, Volume I,” (Democrat Printing, Madison, Wisconsin, 1886).