Hans Christian Heg and his Norwegian Regiment

A mob tore pulled down the statue of Hans  Christian Heg in Madison this week.  

It was a mistake.  He was an abolitionist who died in battle commanding the 15th Wisconsin Regiment, the Norwegian Regiment, in the fight to end slavery.

His wife was Gunhild Einung (eye-nung) and she was from my extended family in Vestfjorddalen, Tinn, Telemark, Norway.  In 2001 I visited the Einung farm and took these pics.  You can see the old buildings of Gunhild's day as well as a portion of the modern home.

Gunhild's father sold the farm and moved to the Muskego Colony (near Milwaukee) of immigrants from Telemark.  He wanted a better life for his daughters.  There she grew with a young man named Hans Christian Heg.   They married and much that we know about the Norwegian Regiment came from the Civil War letters from Hans to Gunhild.  I went to St. Olaf college in Northfield, Minnesota to see the letters where they are preserved by the Norwegian-American 
Historical Association.  I spent years reading about the Norwegian Regiment and visited the battlefields where the regiment fought.  Why?

My great great grandfather dictated, in Norwegian, the history of his family in Norway.  It has been translated into English and I have copies in both languages.  It is a family treasure.  He noted that Peder and Kjetil went off to the Civil War and never returned, died in the south.  No clues beyond that.  I guessed, correctly, that they might sign up with Hans Christian Heg and his "Norwegian Regiment".  The officers spoke Norwegian.

Erik Barsness, pioneer at Glenwood on Lake Minnewaska did survive the war.  Today, I would like to introduce you to Erik, and to his Norwegian Regiment.  He is lucky to have survived the war because he was a flag bearer for a time.  What was that like?  What better tribute to flag bearers and to the 15th Wisconsin can be found than the following description of the charge of the 15th up a ravine against entrenched Confederate lines.  This charge happened at Pickett's Mill near Atlanta.

Who better to describe the fighting and gallantry of Norwegian Regiment that day than the enemy? After reviewing accounts of the battle, Confederate General Joseph E. Johnson wrote of this brave regiment that attacked his forces. “The leading regiment in the storm columns came so close to the barricades as 20 feet, while the flag bearer broke rank and planted the regiment’s flag in the ground 10 feet from the entrenchments and was shot. First one man, then two more crept forward to rescue the flag and were shot one after the other until the forth man succeeded in carrying it away”.  Waldemar Ager later wrote that “one has to go back a thousand years in Norway’s history to find a similar evidence of war-glory or gallantry, such as this little episode that the Battle of Pickett’s Mill witnessed”.

Erik Barsness Co. B

Erik Barsness of Norwegian Regiment fame returned to Wisconsin a hero.  Restless, he set out from Wisconsin into Minnesota accompanied by his brothers Nels and Ole.  They crossed the plains to Glenwood by Lake Minnewaska.  They were seeking homesteads, land.  They came by foot on their

last leg and reported the prairie ground near Lake Minnewaska was strewn with buffalo bones. 


             "Aged Veteran of Civil War Mustered Out".

"Erick N. Barsness, Old Pioneer and Civil War Veteran answers 
last roll call April 25th.  The fading ranks of the Boys in Blue lost
another comrade in the death of Erick N. Barsness which occurred 
at his old homestead in Barsness township on Saturday morning, 
April 25th. He has gone to join the boys who are sleeping in the
eternal camping grounds of the nation's honored dead. The long and useful life is ended.

Erick N. Barsness was born in Sogn, Norway, on November 27th. 
1841 and would have been 84 years of age had he lived until this
fall. On the day the Civil War broke out he sailed for America in a 
sailing vessel of that day. The journey across the ocean took thirteen weeks. He came directly to Dane county, Wisconsin. At the time 
Col Heg of the 15th Wisconsin was gathering volunteers for the 
regiment that became so famous in the Civil War. Erick Barsness volunteered at once to fight for his adopted country and started for 
the South as a private in Company B. 15th Wisconsin Regiment.

He was later promoted to a corporal. The history of 15th Wisconsin 
and the twenty-five battles they won out of twenty-seven needs no 
words of praise as their fame will live as long as memory lives.

At the battle of Stone River, Erick Barsness was shot by a musket
ball which went thru his right breast. In this battle the Union 
soldiers had to retreat and Barsness was left between two fires in 
which he suffered additional wounds. He was left on the battle field 
as dead and was found three days later when the Confederate men 
came to bury the dead. He was taken prisoner and was later paroled.
He soon found his way back to his company and was with Sherman
on his march to the sea. 

At the end of his three-year enlistment he was mustered out at Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1864 but re-enlisted again at once for 
further service. In the company in which he enlisted only twelve of
the original men that went in came back alive and ten of the twelve 
had been wounded.

At the conclusion of the war he came to Washington and took park 
in the grand review before Abraham Lincoln and his staff and 
cabinet. He was mustered out of service on February 11, 1866.

In company with his brother Nels Barsness, also a veteran of the 
Civil War and a younger brother Ole Barsness the three started out 
for western Minnesota to look for land. The nearest railroad station
to Pope county at that time was St. Cloud and the three brothers 
started out afoot across the prairie from St. Cloud westward. In
 going westwards they came to Pope county which at that time had 
less than a dozen settlers. When they came to the east shore of what
is now Lake Ben in Barsness township, they halted on a little knoll 
and camped for the night. They were so impressed with beauty of 
the country that surrounded them that they decided to make it their 
home. They also decided where they had slept the first night should 
be their last resting place. Today the three brothers are sleeping 
there, close by the homestead where they shared the joys and 
hardships of the pioneer days. The land across the lake looked so
good to Erick Barsness that he decided to make it his home. With 
the help of his brothers and neighbors he built a log house which 
stood on the homestead until in 1920.

In the organization and the development of the county the deceased
took an active part with the many early pioneers. The early pioneer 
days until the railroad came to Benson and later to Glenwood 
meant long journeys for provisions. The pioneer days were not all hardships as the early record of the county show, as a settler who 
lived ten or twenty miles away was considered as neighbors. Their celebrations and gatherings were bright pictures in the memory of 
the early settlers.

Shortly after the log house was built Erick Barsness and Martha 
Jacobson were united in marriage. Their union was blessed with six children: Anna, Josie, Nels, James, Albert and Martha. On July 22, 
1879, death entered the home and the mother's chair became vacant. On Nov. 27, 1881 Erick N. Barsness and Bertha Swenson were married. Their union was blessed with the following children: Ida, Hilda, Ida, Omer, Minnie, Edward, Blanche, Sydney, William, Anna, James 
and Lila.

In the fifty-nine years of time the old homestead became the well improved Lake View Farm of today. In his declining years one of 
the great joys of the deceased was to spend hours on Lake Ben 
fishing and enjoying the beauty of the great outdoor. In the sunset 
of his life the deceased found quite and restful days in contrast to the active days of his earlier life. During the last six months the
powerful physical constitution of the deceased gradually weakened
until the end came peacefully on the bright sunny morning of April 
25th.

In character, the late Erick N. Barsness, was of the Viking type. He 
knew no fear or compromise. What he believed was right he was 
willing to give his all for. He was kind and generous and was always ready to give a helping hand to a fellow man in time of need. He 
worked hard in building up the roads, schools and churches of his community. His life was one of service to his home, country and 
God.

Note from Gene. As a final tribute to the 15th, I pass along this item I found in my research:

“They were old men now, and as these Civil 
War veterans were brought up to the speaker's platform terrific rounds of applause rose through the hall. As they unfurled the old regimental flag, the cheers and applause of 20,000 sounded like a hurricane over the gathering. The old warriors seemed very much moved by the ovation, 
although they had well earned it. These veterans were the last of "The Norwegian Regiment", the 15th Wisconsin Regiment, that was shattered 50 years earlier on the fields of Tennessee and Georgia.

They held their last major reunion May 17, 1914, celebrating Norwegian Independence Day. The location was the exhibition hall at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Twenty-seven of the veterans
of Det Femtende Wisconsin Frivillige (the 15th Wisconsin Regiment) registered. The old regimental flag was never lost in battle, and the 15th served in 26 battles all together. As they listened to the speakers, including the Honorable James Peterson, their thoughts had to turn back
to places like Stones River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Picketts Mill, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, and the infamous prison camp called Andersonville.”

Notes from Gene:

I learned of Erik Barsness while doing my

research on the Norwegian Regiment while 

living in Atlanta. Now, while living in 

Glenwood, I decided to "look him up". I hiked Barsness park and studied Lake Ben Cemetery.

I spent years researching the regiment. Halvor Haugan came over from Norway to tour the 

Civil War battlefields. We spent 10 days on the road. Then Torbjorn Greipsland, Norwegian

author and University Lecturer, came over for a tour. He wrote a book about Andersonville 

Prison Camp in Georgia. Also, he wrote an 

article published in over 40 Norwegian cities.  

In the article he described Gene Estensen as 

"one of a handful of experts on the 15th 

Wisconsin Regiment". Then Erik Bye, the 

Walter Chronkite of Norway, came over to Chickamauga Battlefield to do a 1-hour TV 

special on the 15th. We walked the battlefield together where Hans Christian Heg was killed. 

A group from Norway reenacted the 15th Wisconsin role at Chicamauga Battlefield. 

 Several of us "family members" presented the Norwegians with a flag in a short ceremony as 

the cameras rolled.

Gene and Halvor Haugan of Telemark, Norway at Chicamauga Battlefield location where 

Heg was killed leading a charge.

Halvor and his son toured with me for 10 days.

Monument to 15th at Chickamauga Battlefield

Halvor and Gene at Nashville grave of family member Peder Torgiersen (Peter Thompson), Company K, 15th Wisconsin Regiment

Erik Bye of Norwegian television fame at 15th Wisconsin Regiment monument at Chickamauga.  

Anne Haugan Wagn, Norwegian author, visits 

Marietta National Cemetery where Gene and 

Marietta Mayor Bill Dunaway show her graves of 

15th Wisconsin Regiment soldiers killed in the 

Atlanta Campaign. Anne is with the Telemark Historielag (history club) and lives in Telemark, Norway.

Anne shows Mayor Bill an article aboutJohn 

Johnson Thoe (15th Wisconsin) published in 

Norway and written by Gene.

Reenactors of 15th Wisconsin Regiment from
Norway receive a flag from us at Chickamauga Battlefield as Norwegian TV cameras roll.

Last but not least, assimilation came quickly to my family because of the loss of Peder and Kjetil in 

the Civil War. Norwegians living in America 

became Norwegian-Americans and then just plain 

Americans.

Tell the tale over and over again so that it is never
forgotten.