Civil War Soldiers Record Database

Even Julsen was enlisted under the name Edwin Julson for a 3-year term of service in Company E of the 15th WI by Captain James Julson in the same company on the same day. The men of the company called themselves “Odin’s Rifles.” Edwin was mustered into Federal service at the rank of Private (Menig) on December 8, 1861 at Camp Randall near Madison, Dane County, WI. At the time he was listed as being 21 years old and not married. He was recorded as being a farmer with blue eyes, light colored hair and complexion, standing 5 feet and 10 inches tall, and residing in Perry, Dane County, WI.

Private Julson was appointed as the 5th Corporal of Company E on January 1, 1862. On January 14, 1862, the men of the company were issued Belgian rifle muskets. On March 2, 1862 after several months at Camp Randall learning to be a soldier, Corporal Julson left there with his company and regiment to join the war. From then until November 1863, he was recorded as “present” with the 15th. As such he would have been at the siege of Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River in TN, and the raid on Union City, TN in March and April 1862. That summer he would have been on campaign with the 15th though TN, MS, and AL. In August and September 1862, he would have been on the grueling 400-mile retreat with General Buell up to Louisville, KY, with the last 2 weeks being conducted on half rations and little water. Starting in September 1862, he was listed as a Private.

Edwin would have been present at the October 8, 1862 Battle of Perryville, KY, which is also called the Battle of Chaplin Hills. And at the end of December he would have participated in the capture of a Confederate artillery cannon at Bald Knob, TN near Nashville, and in the long, cold, wet, and bloody Battle of Stone River, TN, also called the Battle of Murfreesboro. The 15th was cited for bravery at Stone River, where it suffered its first significant battle casualties.

The 15th camped in the Murfreesboro area for the next 6 months, except for 2 weeks in February when it was sent to Franklin, TN. Starting June 23, 1863, the regiment took part in General Rosecrans’ Tullahoma campaign. On July 3, 1863, it camped at Winchester, TN. On August 17, 1863, the 15th left there to participate in General Rosecrans’ Chickamauga campaign. Private Julson is believed to have been present at the daring early morning crossing of the Tennessee River on August 28th, which the 15th led. He was also present at the September 19-20, 1863 Battle of Chickamauga, GA — the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War. He survived the vicious fighting around Viniard’s Farm on the first afternoon, as well as the near capture of the regiment around midday on the 20th during Longstreet’s Breakthrough. Some 63% of the 15th’s soldiers who were at Chickamauga were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. For a short time after the battle Private Julson was officially listed as “missing.”

Private Julson served with the regiment during the Confederate siege of Chattanooga, TN, which began right after the battle. The siege resulted in severe shortages of medicine, food, and firewood which, together with cold, wet weather, caused much suffering, sickness, and death. The Confederate siege was finally broken by the Union Army’s victorious charge up Mission Ridge on November 25, 1863, which the 15th took part in. Starting November 28, 1863, Private Julson was listed as “absent sick” in Chattanooga, TN. He died there in Division No. 5 Hospital just over a month later of “chronic diarrhoea.” At the time of his death he had in his possession “1 knapsack, 1 haversack and 1 canteen, considerably worn.”

Sources: Genealogical information provided by Marty Gale; Oppland fylke, Nord-Aurdal, Ministerialbok nr. 3 (1828-1841), Fødte og døpte 1841, page 358; Oppland fylke, Svennes i Nord-Aurdal, Ministerialbok nr. 5 (1842-1863), Inn- og utflyttede 1849-1858, page 262; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894); Civil War Compiled Military Service Records, Office of Adjutant General of the United States (Washington, DC); Regimental Descriptive Rolls, Volume 20, Office of the Adjutant General State of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin, 1885); Norwegian Immigrants to the United States. A Biographical Directory, 1825-1850. Volume Four 1849, Gerhard B. Naeseth and Blaine Hedberg, 2008, Anundsen Publishing Co., Decorah, IA, p. 23, ID 284.