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Kund R. Olson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Kund R. Olson

Birth Name
Lived

ca. 1829 – 9 Jan 1863

Birth Country

Norway

Resident of Muster-In

Winneshiek County, IA

Company at Enlistment

K

Rank at Enlistment

First Sergeant

Muster Date

1 Feb 1862

Cause of Death

Wounds

Death Location

Murfreesboro, Rutherford County, TN

Spouse

Anna M.

Spouse Lived

ca. 1833-

Prior to joining the war, Knud R. Olson lived in Decorah, Winneshiek County, IA in 1860. He worked as a shoemaker and was married to a woman named Anna M. They had three children named Hallon (1854), Adolph (1857), and William (1859).

Olson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company K in 1862. The company called itself “Clausen’s Guards” in honor of the 15th’s first Chaplain, Claus L. Clausen. Most of the company was recruited from Scandinavian communities in MN and IA, with the rest from WI.

 The army listed him as living in Winneshiek County, IA, age 32, and married. He enlisted for three years on January 25, 1862 at Decorah, Winneshiek County, IA, and mustered at Madison, WI on February 11, 1862. On February 1, 1862, he was designated First Sergeant (Sersjant). He was on Military Police duty on June 10, 1862. Olson was seriously wounded at Stones River, TN on December 31, 1862, and sent to a field hospital at Murfreesboro, TN where he died of his wounds on January 9, 1863.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, boxes 76-12, 77-8; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin; Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.140; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.638; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.319; 1860 Census, Roll: M653_345, Page: 814, Image: 262, Family History Library Film: 803345.