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Christopher Gulbrandson

15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
The Scandinavian Regiment

Database Record Change Request

Name at Enlist

Christopher Gulbrandson

Birth Name

Christopher Gulbrandsen Rugland

Other Names

Gilbertson, Rugland

Lived

5 Aug 1816 – 5 Aug 1880

Birth Place

Eggedal parish, Sigdal, Buskerud fylke

Birth Country

Norway

Resident of Muster-In

Worth County, IA

Company at Enlistment

K

Rank at Enlistment

Private

Muster Date

11 Feb 1862

Death Location

Freeborn Co, MN

Burial Location

North Round Prairie Cem, Greenville, Freeborn Co, MN

Mother

Helge Gjermandsdatter Tollefsrud

Mother Lived

1780-27 May 1838

Father

Gulbrand Fingarsen Rugland

Father Lived

1770-30 Dec 1841

Immigration

by 1862

Spouse

Sigrid Sebjørnsdatter Skare

Spouse Lived

12 Feb 1819-9 Jan 1855

Married On

28 Nov 1841

Marriage Location

Eggedal parish, Sigdal, Buskerud

2nd Spouse

Randi Tollefsdatter

2nd Spouse Lived

7 Jan 1819-26 May 1898

2nd Marriage Date

26 Jul 1863

2nd Marriage Location

Silver Lake, Worth Co, IA

Christopher Gulbrandson 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 Minnesota and Iowa, with the rest from Wisconsin.

The army listed Gulbrandson as living in Worth County, IA, age 45, and married. He enlisted for three years on January 20, 1862, in Worth County, and mustered at Madison, WI, on February 11, 1862, as a Private (Menig). He was left behind, sick, at Mississippi River Island No. 10 on June 11, 1862. He became unfit for service and was discharged for disease at Cincinnati, OH, on October 10, 1862.

Christopher had at least six children with his first wife, who died in Norway, most of whom emigrated to America:  Gulbrand 1842-?, Sebjørn/Samuel (1845-1892), Fingal (1847-1892), Helle (1850-1942), Lars/Lewis (1852-1933), and Stener/Stephen (1855-1929).  He and his second wife moved to Freeborn Co, MN, where he died in 1880.

 

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-12; Regimental Muster and Descriptive Rolls, 1861-1865, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, vol. 20, p. 144; Det Femtende Regiment Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett, 1894, B. Anundsen, Decorah, IA, p. 623;  Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Publ. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p. 317; Nordmændene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p. 284; “Norwegian Immigrants 1850 and later”, database, NAGCNL, #44950; digitalarkivet.no: ancestry.com;findagrave.