Skip Navigation

Ivar Olson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Ivar Olson

Birth Name
Lived

ca. 1837 – 2 Jul 1864

Birth Country

Norway

Resident of Muster-In

Albert Lea, Freeborn County, MN

Company at Enlistment

I

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

2 Mar 1862

Cause of Death

Wounds

Death Location

Chattanooga, Hamilton County, TN

Burial Location

National Cemetery at Chattanooga; section E, grave 470

Ivar Olson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company I. The men of the company called themselves the “Scandinavian Mountaineers” but were also known as the “Waupaca Company” because so many of them were living in that WI county when they enlisted.

The army listed him as living in Albert Lea, Freeborn County, MN, born in Norway, age 24, unmarried, and a farmer. He had hazel eyes, dark hair, dark complexion, and stood 5’4¾”. He enlisted for three years on March 2, 1862 at Madison, WI, and mustered there the same day as a Private (Menig). He was with the provisions transport from Stevenson, AL in September and October 1863. Olson was seriously wounded in both legs at Bald Knob (Kennesaw Mountain), Georgia on June 21, 1864. He died of his wounds in a hospital at Chattanooga, TN on July 2, 1864. Olson was buried in the National Cemetery at Chattanooga; section E, grave 470.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-11,18; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.132; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p,603; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.315, e51.