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John S. Opdahl

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

John S. Opdahl

Birth Name
Lived

ca. 1843 – 22 Jun 1864

Resident of Muster-In

Leeds, Columbia County, WI

Company at Enlistment

B

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

16 Nov 1861

Cause of Death

Diarrhea

Death Location

Andersonville Prison, Macon County, GA

Burial Location

Andersonville National Cemetery, Macon County, GA; grave 2309

John S. Opdahl joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company B. The men of the company called themselves the “Wergeland Guards” in honor of Henrik Wergeland, the famous Norwegian writer and poet.

The army listed him as living in Leeds, Columbia County, WI, age 18, and unmarried. He enlisted for three years on September 14, 1861 at Madison, WI, and mustered there on November 16, 1861 as a Private (Menig). Opdahl was taken prisoner at Chickamauga, GA on September 20, 1863, and sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, VA. From there, he went to Andersonville Prison, GA, where he died of diarrhea on June 22, 1864. He was buried in grave 2309.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-4; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin; Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.34; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.396; Nordmaendene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p.320; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.297; Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, Vol I & II; Compiled under direction of the Adjutant General, Madison, WI, 1886, p.809.