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Ole Helgeson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Ole Helgeson

Birth Name
Other Names

Ole Helgesen

Lived

ca. 1817 – ca. 1890

Resident of Muster-In

Elgin, Fayette County, IA

Company at Enlistment

H

Rank at Enlistment

Corporal

Muster Date

13 Feb 1862

Spouse

Sigre

Ole Helgeson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company H. The men of the company called themselves “Heg’s Rifles” in honor of the 15th commander, Colonel Hans C. Heg. They were also known as the “Voss Company” because of a large number of them who were from the Voss region of Norway.

The army listed Helgeson as living in Elgin, Fayette County, IA, age 44, and married. He enlisted for three years on November 26, 1861 at Madison, WI, and mustered there on February 13, 1862 as a Corporal (Korporal). He was left sick at Mississippi River Island No. 10 on June 11, 1862. In March 1863, he was listed as a deserter, but it was later determined that this was not true and that he had been discharged from the service. After the war, his widow, Sigre, filed a pension in his name in 1890.

 

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-10; Regimental Muster and Descriptive Rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.112; Det Femtende Regiment. Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett, Decorah, IA, 1894, p.562; Nordmændene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p.263; Civil War Pension Index, Roll #T288_210.