Civil War Soldiers Record Database

Torger Aslakson joined the WI 15th Infantry, Company K. 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 MN and IA, with the rest from WN.

The army listed Aslakson as living in Worth County, IA, age 30, a farmer, and married. He had blue eyes, red hair, fair complexion, and stood 5’3¾”. He enlisted for three years on December 10, 1861 at Worth County, and mustered at Madison, WI on February 11, 1862 as a Private (Menig). He died of disease in the Regimental Hospital at Mississippi River Island No. 10 on June 2, 1862. He was buried in Mississippi River National Cemetery near Memphis, TN. Two pensions were filed in his name: his widow Cornelia S. Lee on April 15, 1863, and a minor (possibly his son) named Paulsen M. Lee on July 31, 1865.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, boxes 76-12, 77-3; Regimental Muster and Descriptive Rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol.20, p.142; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett, Decorah, IA, 1895, p.620; Nordmændene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p.270; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Publ. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.317; Wisconsin in the War of the Rebellion, Wm. DeLoss Love, 1866, Church and Goodman, Chicago, p.1082; Civil War Pension Index, Roll #T288_278.