Civil War Soldiers Record Database

Selah Mathews was born in 1830 in Syracuse, NY. He joined the WI 15th Infantry at the age of 31. He enrolled for three years on November 25, 1861 at Waupun, WI. On January 1, 1862, he was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major. He was discharged from the service on July 5, 1862 at Corinth, MS, and commissioned First Lieutenant. He was assigned as Regimental Quartermaster  (Kvartermester), succeeding Ole Heg, on June 6, 1862. Mathews was detached at Crab Orchard on October 18, 1862 to travel to Louisville, KY. He was taken prisoner by Morgan’s Raiders, exchanged, paroled, and sent to Camp Chase, OH. He returned to the regiment on May 25, 1863. He mustered out on February 13, 1865.

After the war, Mathews returned to his wife and children in WI. He and his wife, Harriet, had at least six children: Adelaide (1854), Rose (1860), Harriet (1868), Kittie (1869), Mabel (1871), and Mary (1878). In 1870, they were living in Portage, Columbia County, WI and he worked as a timekeeper for the railroad. By 1875, they were living in Minneapolis, Hennepin County, MN. Mathews died in 1889 and is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Winona, Winona County, MN.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, boxes 76-2, 78-1; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.2; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, IA, 1894), p.332; Civil War Pension Index, Roll #T288_218; 1870 Census, Roll: M593_1706, Page: 297A, Image: 577, Family History Library Film: 553205; 1880 Census, Roll: 622, Family History Film: 1254622, Page: 452B, Enumeration District: 252, Image: 0726; 1875 MN Census, MNSC_9, Line 11; findagrave.com; Minnesota Grand Army of the Republic Membership Records, GS Film #002321171, Digital Folder #007580975, Image #00609.