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John Nilson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

John Nilson

Birth Name
Other Names

Nelson; Nielson

Lived

ca. 1821 – 31 Aug 1862

Resident of Muster-In

New Glarus, Green County, WI

Company at Enlistment

E

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

8 Dec 1861

Cause of Death

Disease

Death Location

Iuka, Tishomingo County, MS

Burial Location

National Cemetery at Corinth, Alcorn County, MS

John Nilson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company E. The men of the company called themselves “Odin’s Rifles.”

The army listed Nilson as living in New Glarus, Green County, WI, age 40, and unmarried. He enlisted for three years on November 1, 1861 in Dane County, WI. His enlistment is credited to Primrose, Dane County. He mustered on December 8, 1861 at Madison, WI as a Private (Menig). On August 20, 1862, he was left sick in hospital at Iuka, MS. Nilson died there of disease on August 31, 1862. He was buried in National Cemetery at Corinth, MS.

 

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, boxes 76-7, 77-8; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.76; Payroll muster rolls of WI 15th Co. E, saved by Captain T. A. Rossing; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.489; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.305.