Born September 10, 1833, Skrenes, Balestrand, Kingdom of Norway
Parents
were Lasse Ingebrigtsen and Sigrid Johansdatter Skrenes
Died
April 6, 1863, Town of Murfreesboro, State of Tennessee
Buried Section I,
Grave No. 228, Stones River National Battlefield Cemetery, Murfreesboro,
Tennessee
Ragnald Lasse Son was enlisted under the name Rognald Lasseson of in Company B of the 15th Wisconsin by Captain Ole C. Johnson on October 22 or 23, 1861. The men of Company B called themselves the Wergeland Guards in honor of Henrik Wergeland, the famous Norwegian writer and poet. Rognald was mustered into Federal service as a Private (Menig) for a 3 year term of service on November 16, 1861, at Camp Randall, near the City of Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. At the time he was 29 years old and not married. His occupation was listed as Laborer and his residence as the Town of Christiana, Dane County, State of Wisconsin. He was recorded as having blue eyes, dark color hair, a light complexion, and standing 5 feet 10 inches tall.
After some 3 monthst at Camp Randall learning to be a soldier, Private Lasseson left there in early March, 1862, with his company and regiment to join the war. In March and April the 15th participated in siege of Island No. 10, in the Mississippi River, Tennessee, and the raid on Union City, Tennessee. That summer Company B was with the 15th on campaign through Tennessee and the States of Mississippi and Alabama. In August and September the 15th took part in the grueling 400 mile retreat with General Buell up to the City of Louisville, State of Kentucky, with the last 2 weeks being on half rations and very short of water.
On October 8, 1862, the regiment took part in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, which is also called the Battle of Chaplin Hills. While this was the first big battle the 15th was in, it emerged without any fatalities. In late December, 1862, the 15th fought at Bald Knob, Tennessee, where it captured a Confederate artillery cannon. It then fought in the long, cold, wet, and bloody Battle of Stone River, Tennessee, also called the Battle of Murfreesboro. There the regiment suffered severely in killed, wounded, and captured, and was afterwards cited for its bravery.
Private Lasseson survived a year of hard marching and fighting, only to die of "typhoid fever", also referred to a nerve or nervous fever, while camped near Murfreesboro.
Sources: Genealogical data courtesy of Ronald Pearson; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers] by Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1895); and, Regimental Descriptive Rolls, Volume 20 Office of the Adjutant General State of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin, 1885).
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