Civil War Soldiers Record Database

Soren Johan Hansen was born in Skien, Norway, in 1820. He was a surgeon, trained in Norway. He was said to have been a well-educated physician, contemptuous of orthodox religion. He came to America in 1855, and to Koshkonong, Dane County, WI in 1856.

Hansen joined the WI 15th Infantry. The army listed Hansen as living in Utica, Dane County, WI. He was commissioned on November 11, 1861 at Dane County, WI, and mustered at Madison on February 13, 1862 as a Regimental Surgeon. His wife’s name was Alberta Ulfers. She traveled with her husband during the war and worked in his hospitals tending the sick and wounded. Dr. Hansen was the first physician to serve the WI 15th. In January 1862, Dr. Steven O. Himoe became the chief doctor and Hansen became his assistant. Hansen resigned on October 20, 1863. In 1866, Hansen went back to Norway and became district doctor in Romsdalen.

Sources: Series 1200: Records of Civil War Regiments, 1861-1900, Wisconsin Adjutant General’s Office, box 76-2; History of the Norwegian People in America, Olaf Morgan Norlie, pub. 1925, p.467; Det Femtende Regiment. Wisconsin Frivillige [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers], Ole A. Buslett, Decorah, IA, 1894, p.327; Nordmændene i Amerika, Martin Ulvestad, 1907, History Book Co., Minneapolis, MN, p.252; Oberst Heg og hans gutter, Waldemar Ager, 1916, Fremad Publ. Co., Eau Claire, WI, p.290 The Military History of Wisconsin in the War for the Union, Edwin B. Quiner, 1866, Clarke & Co., Chicago, p.613; “Notes of a Civil War Soldier”, Bersven Nelson. Norwegian-American Studies, vol.26, publ by Norwegian American Historical Association, Northfield, MN, 1974. p.127 and note; Americans from Norway, Leola Nelson Bergmann, publ. 1950,  J.B.Lippincott Co. p.250.