Civil War Soldiers Record Database

Knudt Knudtson was born in Fagernes, Numedal, Norway. He joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company C. The men of the company called themselves the “Norway Bear Hunters,” but they were also known as the Color Company because the regimental Color Guard was attached to their company. The army listed him as living in Norway Township, Racine County, WI, age 24, and married. He enlisted for three years on October 11, 1861 at Madison, WI, and mustered there on December 2, 1861 as a Private (Menig). He was taken prisoner at Stones River, TN on December 31, 1862 and exchanged. He was taken prisoner again at Chickamauga, GA on September 19, 1863. He was never heard from after that. Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage says that Knudtson was exchanged, but that records show only that he was in St. Louis, MO on parole. If he was not exchanged and went into the lines again anyway, he would likely have been shot following his capture a second time, and absent as a prisoner of war at the muster out of his Regiment.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-5; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.46; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.420; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.299; Grimsrud.