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Christian Martin Ruste
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Taken January or February 1862 at Madison, Wisconsin, shortly after
he enlisted
Photograph courtesy of Christian's Great, Great, Great Grandneice
Rayne Arneson
Picture has been electronically enhanced by Deep
Vee Productions from a photocopy
To view a larger copy of this image, please click
HERE.
Born _________ __, 1845, Røste farm, Etnedalen, Valdres,
Oppland, Kingdom of
Norway
Father was Arne Ellingson (Erlandson) Blåflat (1808-1852)
Mother was Siri
(Sigrid) Andersdatter Kleivgard (1809-1908)
Immigrated to America,
1850, with his parents and siblings on the sailing ship Valina
Never married, no known children
Died May 2,
1862, Island No. 10, State of Tennessee, in the Mississippi River
Buried as an
unidentified soldier, Memphis National Cemetery, City of Memphis, Tennessee
Kristian M. Røste joined Company E of the 15th Wisconsin under the name Christian M. Ruste. He was enlisted by Captain John Ingmundsen on January 9, 1862, at the City of Madison, Daner County, Wisconsin, for a 3 year term of service. The men of Company E called themselves "Odin's Rifles."
Christian was mustered into Federal service at the rank of "Private" on January 11, 1862, by Captain Lamot, a U.S. Army Mustering Officer, at Camp Randall, near Madison, Wisconsin. At that time the Army recorded Christian as being a 17 year old unmarried farmer, and having "blue eyes, brown hair, a fair complexion" and "standing 5 feet 6 inches tall." His residence was listed as the Town of Blue Mounds, Dane County, Wisconsin.
On January 14, 1862, the men of the 15th Wisconsin were issued Belgian rifled muskets, also known as Dresden muskets. After less than 2 months at Camp Randall learning to be a soldier, Private Ruste left there on March 2, 1862, with his company and regiment to join the war. From then until May, 1862, he was listed as "present" with the 15th. As such he would have participated in the siege of Island No. 10 from mid-March until early April, 1862. The island was a heavily fortified Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River in the State of Tennessee. The siege was described in a letter dated March 18, 1862, written by Private Lars O. Dokken of Company H.
| "It is now 3 days since we arrived. We are 3 miles from the enemy. Our cannonboats fire at them every day, and they fire back at us. So we are not safe at any time. We think we will attack when we are all assembled. We don't know how many [Confederate soldiers] there are, but there seem to be a great number... |
Private Ruste would also have taken part in the 15th's successful surprise raid on Confederate Cavalry forces at Union City, Obion County, Tennessee, on March 31, 1862. The raid was described in a diary kept by then Corporal Michael Thompson of Company I.
| "In the morning after some coffee and hard tack we set out again. Soon we heard the picket fire off some gun shots and we had orders to spring after them, but when we got there they were already gone... The breakfast was boiling hot on the tables. The horses and mules were half saddled and half loaded, but were abandoned. We destroyed the camp, took the horses and the mules and some prisoners..." |
After the Confederate surrender of Island No. 10 on April 8, 1862, Company E was one of several ordered to occupy and defend Isler's Landing, just across the river from the island. The area was described in an April 16, 1862, letter by Sergeant Iver Torkelson of Company H.
| "Where we have put up our tents is a beautiful plantation with the finest fruit orchard I have ever seen, and the fields around the tents are clad in their fine clothing of green. The house belonging to the plantation is used as the camp headquarters." |
However, the 15th's soldiers soon considered the area a very unhealthy place to be due to bad water, high heat, and dangerous fevers. Many of the regiment's men become sick, including Private Ruste. According to Buslett's 1895 history of the 15th, Private Ruste came down with "nervous fever" [typhoid fever]. He died of it on May 2, 1862, just 4 months after having enlisted.
The death of Private Ruste was noted in a letter dated May 4, 1862, written from Island No. 10 by Private Dokken, whose brother Knud O. Dokken lay dying of typhoid in the 15th's hospital.
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"Many members of our regiment are suffering from typhoid fever; and several have died, among them Christian Røstø..." |
A month later most of the 15th boarded steamboats and left the area, never to return. Companies G and I remained there on extended guard duty until August, 1863, when they finally departed to rejoin the rest of the regiment. In late 1864 and early 1865 the surviving comrades of Christian Ruste were mustered out of the army at the end of their 3 terms of enlistment. A few months later the Civil War ended in the total defeat of the Confederate rebellion.
During these 3 years Christian's body lay in a grave at Isler's Landing, but it was not to be his final resting place. Shortly after the war the 15th's soldiers buried at Island No. 10 and Isler's Landing were dug up and transported to the Mississippi River National Cemetery near the City of Memphis, Tennessee. In 1868 the bodies of all Union soldiers were removed from this cemetery and re-buried in the nearby Memphis National Cemetery. The following is from a February, 2002, biography of Christian Ruste written by Rayne Arneson.
| "I spoke with a caretaker at Memphis National Cemetery...he verified that there was no marker or listing for Christian. He noted that there were approximately 9,000 unidentified soldiers buried in this cemetery. He also noted that when moving these caskets from other sites, they were marked with chalk. By the time they reached Memphis National Cemetery, many had been washed or worn off...We just do not know, and will never know the exact spot in which lays Christian Ruste." |
Sources: Genealogical data from Rayne Arneson, and from Tove D. Johansen; Gard og bygd i Ethedal; Oberst Heg og hans gutter [Colonel Heg and His Boys] by Waldemar Ager (Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 1916); Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers] by Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1895); Regimental Descriptive Rolls, Volume 20 Office of the Adjutant General State of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin, 1885); and, Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, Volume I Office of the Adjutant General State of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin, 1886).
This page Copyright by Scott Cantwell Meeker of Deep
Vee Productions.
All Rights Reserved. Created February 22, 2002. Last updated
April 6, 2002.