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Salve Osolsson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Salve Osolsson

Birth Name

Osufsen

Other Names

Samuel Osulsen, Osolfsen, Olafson

Lived

Feb 1831 – 1 May 1905

Birth Place

Austad Parish, Bygland, Aust-Agder

Birth Country

Norway

Resident of Muster-In

Manitowoc County, WI

Company at Enlistment

F

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

12 Dec 1861

Death Location

Manitowoc Rapids, Manitowoc County, WI

Burial Location

Gjerpen Cemetery, Madsen, Manitowoc County, WI

Mother

Gunild Torjusdatter

Mother Lived

1819-

Father

Osuf Thorbjørnsen

Father Lived

1804-

Immigration

1851

Spouse

Anne Alfsen

Spouse Lived

8 Jun 1838- 18 Sep 1921

Married On

18 Oct 1861

Marriage Location

Manitowoc Rapids, Manitowoc County, WI

Salve Osolsson was born in February 1831 in Austad Parish, Bygland, Aust-Agder, Norway.  His parents were Osuf Thorbjørnsen and Gunild Torjusdatter. They immigrated in 1851 and were residing in Manitowoc Rapids, Manitowoc County, WI in 1860. Salve was called a “pioneer resident of the town of Manitowoc Rapids.”

On October 18, 1861, Osolsson married Anne Alfsen in Manitowoc Rapids. Together, they had nine children: Osuf/Osul (1866), Thorbjorn/Thomas (1867), Julia (1868), Theodore (1870), Gunhild/Matilda (1872), Ole (1873), Anne Tomine/Minnie (1875), Alvine Christine (1877), and Emma (1879). It is believed that Anne had a first husband named Bjørgu Olsen with whom she had a son named Salve. It is possible this son was born to Anne and Salve Osolsson.

Osolsson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company F. The men of the company called themselves “KK’s Protectors” in honor of the 15th’s first Lieutenant Colonel, Kiler K. Jones. “F” was also known as the Valdres Company because a large number of its members hailed from the Valdres region of Norway.

The army listed Osolsson as living in Manitowoc County, WI, age 28, and married. He enlisted for three years on October 5, 1861 at Manitowoc and mustered at Madison, WI on December 12, 1861 as a Private (Menig). Osolsson was sick in Bowling Green, KY on September 17, 1862. On January 4, 1863, he was wounded at Stones River, TN, and was in hospital in Nashville, TN. He was at Camp Dennison, OH and then sick in Division hospital on July 21, 1864. He mustered out with the Company on January 13, 1865 at Chattanooga, TN.

After the war, Osolsson lived at Manitowoc Rapids, WI with his family. He worked as a farmer. He died on May 1, 1905. Anne died on September 18, 1921. They are both buried in Gjerpen Cemetery, Madsen, Manitowoc County, WI.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-8; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.90; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.516; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.308; Hedberg; Nordmaendene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p.320; Wisconsin Death Index, Sequence #288723, Index #2, Image #2322, Reel #51, Page #393; findagrave.com; 1860 Census, Roll: M653_1418, Page: 654, Image: 332, Family History Library Film: 805418; 1870 Census, Roll: M593_1723, Page: 255A, Image: 513, Family History Library Film: 553222; http://www.2manitowoc.com/2Oobit.html, Manitowoc Herald News, 9/19/1921, p.1; “History of Manitowoc County Wisconsin” by Dr. L. Falge, 1911-1912, v.2, p.285- 286; http://www.rbjerke.net/wp-content/files/Manitowoc-skogen.pdf.