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Knud Amundsen

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment
Knud  Amundsen Profile Image
Photo courtesy of Mark Ashley, great-great grandnephew of Johannes Martinson. Picture is a cropped and retouched scan of a copy of an image in an old Mower County Atlas.
Mower County, MN, Atlas

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Name at Enlist

Knud Amundsen

Birth Name

Knud Hermandsen

Other Names

Knut Amundson, Knud Anunson

Lived

13 Jul 1836 – 18 Dec 1906

Birth Place

Vik parish, Sogn og Fjordane fylke

Birth Country

Norway

Resident of Muster-In

Nevada, Mower County, MN

Company at Enlistment

K

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

11 Feb 1862

Cause of Death

Long illness

Death Location

Mower County, MN

Burial Location

Six Mile Grove Cemetery, Lyle, Mower County, MN

Mother

Guro Marcusdatter Otterskreen

Mother Lived

1814-20 Nov 1894

Father

Hermand Amundsen Nesse

Father Lived

1813-26 Jun 1890

Immigration

1855

Spouse

Liv Svendsdatter (Elizabeth S. Jorgenson)

Spouse Lived

11 Apr 1844-12 Jun 1930

Married On

2 Feb 1866

Marriage Location

St. Ansgar, Mitchell County, IA

Knud Hermandsen was born on July 13, 1836, in Vik parish, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway to Hermand Amundson and Guro Marcusdatter. The family immigrated to America in 1855. They first settled in Christiana, Dane county, WI. In 1859, they relocated to Nevada Township, Mower County, MN.

Amundson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company K a few years after relocating to Minnesota. The company called itself “Clausen’s Guards” in honor of the 15th’s first Chaplain, Claus L. Clausen. Most of the company was recruited from Scandinavian communities in Minnesota and Iowa, with the rest from Wisconsin.

The army listed Amundson as living in Nevada, MN, age 24, and unmarried. He enlisted for three years on January 29, 1862, at Nevada, and mustered at Madison, WI, on February 11, 1862, as a Private (Menig). He was then promoted to Corporal (Korporal). He was seriously wounded at Stones River, TN, and sent to the hospital in Nashville, TN, on December 31, 1862. He was sick in Stevenson, AL, on August 28, 1863, and transferred to the Veteran Reserve Corps on September 1, 1863.

Knud Amundson married Elizabeth S. Jorgenson on February 2, 1866, in St. Ansgar, IA. They had at least nine children, including Malina (1866-1931), Henry (1867-1877), Gunnild (1870-1872), Sophia C. (1872-1890), Lilly A. (1874-1895), Henrietta (1877-1949), Henry S. (1879-1879), Otis C. (1881-1907), and Cora (1888-1976). The child in the photo is believed to be their son, Otto C. Amundson.

After marrying, he bought land in Mower County, MN, improved upon it, and built a log house. In 1875, he sold the land and bought new land in the same county. He worked as a county commissioner, town supervisor, clerk, and treasurer. After a long illness, he died on December 18, 1906. He is buried in Six Mile Grove Cemetery, Lyle, Mower County, MN. Elizabeth died on June 12, 1930. His parents and wife are also buried in the same cemetery.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, Archives, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, box 76-12; Regimental Muster and Descriptive Rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, Archives, Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison,  vol. 20, p. 140; Det Femtende Regiment Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett, 1894, B. Anundsen, Decorah, IA, p. 619; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p. v316; Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p. 262; 1875 Minnesota Census, Roll #MNSC_11, Line 6; 1905 MN Census, Roll #MNSC_137, Line 18; Evangelical Lutheran Church of America Records, 1875-1940, p. 358;  History of Mower County, Minnesota, Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge, 1911, p. 494; Mower County Transcript, 12/26/1903, p. 3; findagrave.com.