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Halver (Halvor) Anderson
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Image is a photograph of a painting
Photo courtesy of Ronald Pearson
Picture
appearing above has been electronically enhanced by Deep Vee Productions
Born November 6, 1836, Hanekamb Arnafjord, Vik i Sogn, Kingdom
of Norway
Parents were Anders Hallvardson Hanekamb (1800-1889) and Brita Sjursdotter Lillesand
(1809-1899)
Immigrated to
America, 1856
Died May 25, 1862, Island No.
10, Mississippi River, State of Tennessee
Buried Mississippi River
Cemetery, near the City of Memphis, Tennessee
Hallvard Andersson Hanekamb was enlisted under the name Halver Anderson in Company B of the 15th Wisconsin by Captain Ole C. Johnson on October 10, 1861. His younger brother, Syvert A. Anderson, joined the company a week later. The men of Company B called themselves the "Wergeland Guards" in honor of Henrik Wergeland, the famous Norwegian writer and poet. Halver was mustered into Federal service as a Private (Menig) for a 3 year term of service on November 16, 1862, at Camp Randall, near the City of Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. At the time he was 25 years old, working as a Farmer, and not married. His residence was listed as the Town of Cambridge, Dane County, Wisconsin.
On January 14, 1862, the men of the 15th were issued Belgian rifle muskets. After several months at Camp Randall learning to be a soldier, Private Anderson left there in early March, 1862, with his company and regiment to join the war. That month and next he was present during the siege and capture of Island No. 10, which was located in the middle of the Mississippi River. During the siege he sent the following description to his "Dear and Unforgettable Parents and Brothers and Sisters" about a Union gunboat which had successfully run down river past the Confederate artillery batteries on the island.
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"The North has seven cannon boats, and they are being used, and then two days ago there was one that stole past the island, going south, she had a big freighter along side loaded with hay, so that the Rebels would not do her any harm, and she was lucky, and I have hopes that still another one has done the same thing this night. It was so awful, the cannons roared. They shot twenty-one shots at the first one, but not one cannonball hit her." |
The letter was dated April 6, 1862. At the time Halver was so sick he had to dictate these words to his friend, Private Rognald Lasseson, who wrote them down for him. Nevertheless, Halver tried to reassure his family.
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"I must send you some lines to let you know that my health is alright, thank God, and thanking Him for His mercy towards me, the poor sinner, but the Lord is anyway taking care of me and several others every time and moment, and I hope to find you again in the earthly life, my dear parents, and if it is God's will that we shall not find each other any more here in the earthly life, then I will pray with all my heart to our heavenly Father, that it must not be too long." |
The next day the Confederates quietly abandoned Island No. 10 and the 15th took possession of it without firing a musket. It was there, less than 2 months later, that Halver passed away of "disease."
At some point after the war the bodies of the Union soldiers buried at Island No. 10 were removed and reburied at the National Cemetery near Memphis, Tennessee. Either before or during this process the identities of many of them, including Private Halver Anderson, were lost. He is now buried as an "unknown" from Isler's Landing, Tennessee, which was across the Mississippi River from Island No. 10.
Sources: Genealogical data provided by Ronald Pearson and Tove D. Johansen; Parish records from Vik in Sogn at < http://www.leegenealogy.com/en/leegenea.htm>; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers] by Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1895); and, Regimental Descriptive Rolls, Volume 20 by the Office of Adjutant General State of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin, 1885).
This page Copyright by Scott Cantwell Meeker of Deep
Vee Productions.
All Rights Reserved. Created April 15, 1999. Last updated December
21,
2001.