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Sivert Starkson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Sivert Starkson

Birth Name

Sivert Starkson

Other Names

Sivert Arnfinsen Leidal

Lived

ca. 1844 – 3 Apr 1864

Birth Place

Muskego or Christiana Twnsp, WI

Birth Country

USA

Resident of Muster-In

Cambridge, Dane County, WI

Company at Enlistment

H

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

13 Feb 1862

Cause of Death

Scurvy

Death Location

Confederate prison at Danville, VA

Burial Location

National Cemetery at Danville, VA

Mother

Sigrid Styrksdatter Tvinde

Mother Lived

1810-1844

Father

Anfin Styrksen Leidal

Father Lived

1804-August 2, 1854

Sivert Starkson was born in Wisconsin. His parents immigrated July 6, 1839, with his older siblings. About the time of his birth the family moved from Muskego Settlement in Waukesha County to Christiana Township, Dane County, WI.  His mother died shortly after his birth and his father remarried.

He joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company H. The men of the company called themselves “Heg’s Rifles” in honor of the 15th commander, Colonel Hans C. Heg. They were also known as the “Voss Company” because of a large number of them who were from the Voss region of Norway.

The army listed him as living in Cambridge, Dane County, WI, age 18, and unmarried. He enlisted for three years on January 22, 1862 at Madison, WI, and mustered there on February 13, 1862, as a Private (Menig). He was captured by the enemy at Chickamauga, GA, on September 20, 1863, and died of scurvy in a Confederate prison at Danville, VA, on April 3, 1864. He was buried in National Cemetery at Danville. The army entered him on the Roll of Honor of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 20th Army Corps.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-10; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.120; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.574; Nordmaendene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p.306, p.330; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.311; Lars Gjertveit, Bodo, Norway; Norwegian Immigrants to the United States. A Biographical Directory, 1825-1850. Volume One 1825-1843, Gerhard B. Naeseth, 2008, Anundsen Publishing Co., Decorah, IA, pp. 63, 64, IDs 9, 10.