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Archiver > NORWAY > 1997-12 > 0882642053


From: Neil A Hofland< >
Subject: Uncle Rasmus - 112 - 115
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 1997 18:20:53 +0000


Hi All,

(Uncle Rasmus has saved Ole Olson Hetletvedt as the last Slooper to write
about because he want's to tell us something special about his family.)

Ole Olson the slooper had 4 children, 3 sons and 1 daughter. The 3 boys
were Porter C., Soren L. and James Webster. All 3 enlisted in Co. F,
36th regiment, Illinois volunteers. Porter C. was the captain, but
advanced to the colonelcy of the regiment, and was acting brigadier
general when he was killed in the bloody battle of Franklin, Tenn.

Soren L. was sergeant, and had his head blown off by a shell at the
battle of Murfreesboro, while James Webster came home again without a
scar. He went to Minnesota where his sister Bertha was living. Porter
was buried at Newark, Illinois, and a fine monument was erected on his
grave.

I think it is not generally known that Ole Olson Hetletvedt's son, Porter
C. Olson, distinguished himself in our late civil war, and I shall
therefore now give some account of him.

Everybody knows of Col. Hans C. Heg, the gallant colonel of the 15th
Wisconsin regiment of volunteers, but we never see Colonel Porter C.
Olson mentioned in the Scandinavian press of this country. He was born
in Manchester, near Niagara Falls, in 1831. As shown above, his father
was a Norwegian by birth and his mother an American lady. The family
removed to Newark, Kendall county, Illinois, when Porter was a lad. He
improved the usual advantages to be derived from country schools until he
was fitted for college, and he subsequently attended Beloit college in
Wisconsin, from June, 1856, to June, 1858, but he did not graduate there.

At the breaking out of the Rebellion, he was teaching the public school
at Lisbon, Illinois, but just as Col. Hans C. Heg left a lucrative state
office in Wisconsin to serve his country in the war, so patriotism, duty
and ambition called Porter C. Olson from the school-room to the camp.
Through his efforts a company was recruited at Newark, made up largely of
the sons of Norwegians from that locality and from the town of Mission in
La Salle county. Porter C. Olson was elected its captain, and his
company, with full ranks, was among the first at camp Hammond, where the
36th regiment of Illinois volunteers was organized. This camp was on the
west side of Fox River, and 2 miles from Aurora. The 36th regiment,
known as the Fox River regiment, departed from camp Hammond for the seat
of war September 24, 1861, and Porter C. Olson followed the fortunes of
the regiment in its tedious marches and participated in all its fierce
encounters down to the fatal field at Franklin, Tennessee. He was a
modest and unassuming man and a thorough personal acquaintance was
necessary to fully understand and appreciate the many excellencies of his
character. The historian of the regiment, Major L. G. Bennett, testifies
that "next after the lamented Miller none stood higher or had a warmer
place in the affections of the men than Lieut. Col. Porter C. Olson." I
find in the records of this regiment that Mr. Olson commanded the
regiment with great bravery in the battle of Stone River in December,
1862, and January, 1863. When Gen. Sill was killed in this battle on
December 31, 1862, Col. Greusel of the 36th Illinois, took command of the
brigade, and as Major Miller of the 36th Illinois, was wounded, the
command of the regiment devolved on Porter C. Olson. Of the movements of
the regiment during those eventful days, Captain Olson made a full
official report, and as this is the only document I have hitherto been
able to find from the pen of this gallant soldier, I offer no apology for
reproducing it here as a monument to his memory, It gives us a most
charming glimpse of him has a soldier, man and writer, and eminently
deserves to be preserved among the records of our early Norwegian
settlers. Hitherto his memory has been neglected by his country-men in
America, but it shall henceforth live forever, and linked with that of
the lamented Col. Hans C. Heg, it shall be handed down from generation to
generation as long as descendants of the Norwegians shall be found among
the citizens of the United States. I give Captain Olson's report here as
one of the most precious historical documents that I have found for my
readers in this volume:

(Kneel here. As Captain Porter C. Olson's report is fairly long, I will
break here in order to be able to get it all into the next chapter. I
find it interesting satisfying to note that Uncle Rasmus was correct.
Captain Olson was ignored and his memory is being "handed down from
generation to generation as long as descendants of the Norwegians shall
be found among the citizens of the United States." I rather expect
Uncle Rasmus would be a little surprised to know that one of the people
handing it down over 100 years later would be a great nephew born 2 years
after his death that he probably never heard of.. He would be astonished
to known medium being used was sending messages through the ether and
bouncing them off satellites. I think he would be filled with astonished
pleasure and I am happy to do my part.

Norwegians were extremely loyal and supportive to the North during the
civil war. They supplied lots of volunteers, and it is difficult to
understand how many of them would volunteer. Single people I can
understand, but the level of patriotism for married men and fathers must
have been extremely high. My great grandfather, Hans Henry Danielson,
who was married to Uncle Rasmus' oldest sister, Elizabeth, volunteered in
1862. They had just established a farm in Goodhue County, Minnesota and
he went off to war leaving his wife to manage things, including their 4
children aged 5 and under! How could he do it? How could Great
Grandmother Elizabeth let him? They had the added incentive that the
Sioux Uprising of 1862 and taken place and the regiment was originally
raised to go and rescue captives and catch the Indians. After chasing
the Indians around the Dakotas and into Canada he could have gotten out,
but didn't. He wound up getting wounded in the Battle of Nashville and
lost his leg. He returned home months later and they had 8 more children
and lived to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary on their farm.
They were not alone in making the sacrifices they did for the United
States. Many did so, both 1st and 2nd generation Norwegians, as well as
other immigrant nationalities.

I have a certificate Hans Henry got about 15 years latter from the Army
giving him $65 to pay for an artificial leg. That was the total of his
veteran's benefits. He got the leg but didn't wear it because he didn't
like it as well as the one he had made for himself out of the bottom of a
crutch with a hand carved sort of wooden bowl without a bottom fastened
to the top. He would stick his stump in the bowl and fasten the leg to
his waist with leather straps. The government leg is lost, but I have
his home-made leg. When I first got my hands on it I kept it on the
mantle piece over the fireplace in our living room. After a few years my
wife made me move it. It is in my library now, about 10 feet away from
where is sit at my computer, but it is always next to my heart no matter
where I am.)

Kneel

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