Skip Navigation

Svend Torgerson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment
Svend  Torgerson Profile Image
Wisconsin Historical Society, Iconography, ID 81097

Database Record Change Request

Name at EnlistSvend Torgerson
Birth NameSvend Torjussen Sannes
Other Names Sven
Lived31 Oct 1832 -
Birth PlaceSætersdalen, Valle, Aust Agder
Birth CountryNorway
Resident of Muster-InOconomowoc, Waukesha County, WI
Company at EnlistmentD
Rank at EnlistmentPrivate
Muster Date8 Dec 1861
MotherTorbjørg Torjusdatter
FatherTorjus Svendsen Sannes
Immigration6 Jul 1849
SpouseJulia Osofson
Married OnApr 1866
2nd SpouseAnna Thompson
2nd Marriage Date15 Jul 1876
2nd Marriage LocationScandinavia, Waupaca County, WI

Svend Torgerson was born “Svend Torjussen Sannes” on October 31, 1832. He was from Sætersdalen, Valle, Aust Agder, Norway, the son of Torjus Svendsen Sannes and Torbjørg Torjusdatter. Svend came to America with his parents and two siblings on “Frithjof”, which sailed from Kragerø, Telemark on May 26, 1849 and arrived in NY on July 6, 1849. They came to Dodge County, WI. Both his parents died of cholera in 1849, and the children were raised by an aunt and uncle.

Torgerson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company D. The army listed him as living in Oconomowoc, Waukesha County, WI, age 19, and unmarried. He enlisted for three years on November 11, 1861 at Oconomowoc and mustered on December 8, 1861 at Madison, WI as a Private (Menig). He was with the commissary supply team for a time in June and July 1862. After the Battle of Stones River, TN on December 31, 1862 he was missing and then taken prisoner. He returned on January 11, 1863. He was an escort with the provision transport from Stevenson on October 13, 1863 and sick in Chattanooga, TN on November 28, 1863. He mustered out with Company D on February 13, 1865 at Chattanooga. After the war in April 1866, Svend married Julia Osofson. They lived near Iola and Scandinavia, WI and had two children. On July 15, 1876, he married Anne Thompson on Scandinavia, WI. They had no children. In 1893, he was living at Sheridan, WI.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office boxes 76-6, 78-3; Regimental muster and descriptive rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin; Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.64; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers] by Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1894), p.458 photo; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Pub. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.276 photo; p.302; Nordmaendene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p.337; Norwegian Immigrants to the United States. A Biographical Directory, 1825-1850. Volume Four 1849, Gerhard B. Naeseth and Blaine Hedberg, 2008, Anundsen Publishing Co., Decorah, IA, p. 81, ID 1004; Wisconsin Marriage Records, Batch # M00332-2, GS Film # 1275603.