Torkild Torgersen
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| Name at Enlist | Torkild Torgersen |
| Birth Name | Torkild Torgersen |
| Other Names | Torkel Torgersen, Thomas Torgeson |
| Lived | 11 Apr 1841 – 15 Oct 1901 |
| Birth Place | Satersdal |
| Birth Country | Norway |
| Resident of Muster-In | Dane County, WI |
| Company at Enlistment | F |
| Rank at Enlistment | Private |
| Muster Date | 06 Nov 1861 |
Torkild Torgersen was enlisted for 3 years in of the 15th WI by Captain Ole C. Johnson on October 22, 1861 at Madison, Dane County, WI. Torkild served in Company F, which was called K.K.’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. Torkel was mustered into Federal service as a Private (Menig) on November 6, 1861 at Madison. At the time he was 20 years old and not married. His residence was listed as Dane County, WI. He was recorded as being 6 feet tall with blue eyes and light color hair and complexion. His occupation was listed as a farmer.
In the spring of 1862 Private Torgersen contracted chronic diarrhea while stationed at Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River in TN. Later he was listed as absent sick at Bowling Green, KY from September 17, 1862, until February 1863. As a result he was not with the 15th at the battles of Perryville, KY, or Stone River, also known as Murfreesboro, TN.
Private Torgersen did fight in the bloody Battle of Chickamauga, GA. There he received a severe gunshot wound to the right thigh while in action near Viniard’s Farm on the afternoon of September 19, 1863. He is said to have lain wounded for 3 days on the Confederate-controlled battlefield. On September 23, 1863, he was paroled to Federal forces in exchanged for a Confederate prisoner. He was subsequently sent to U.S. Army hospitals at: Chattanooga, TN; Stevenson, AL; Nashville, TN; and Madison, WI.
Because of his wound, Private Torgersen was transferred from the 15th to the A Company of the 23rd Regiment of the Veterans Reserve Corps (V.R.C.) on January 7, 1864. He was honorably discharged from the Army on November 7, 1864 at Camp Reno in Milwaukee, WI at the expiration of his 3-year term of service.
Sources: Genealogical information provided by Pete Chase; Ole A. Buslett, Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers] (Decorah, Iowa, 1895); Oberst Heg og Hans Gutter [Colonel Heg and His Men] by Waldemar Ager (Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 1916); military service and pension records at the National Archives and Record Administration; and Regimental Muster and Descriptive Rolls, Vol. 20, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office (Madison, Wisconsin, 1885) and other military records at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Archives.