Born April 11, 1841, Satersdal, Kingdom of Norway
Immigrated to
America, 1861
Married Christine Iverson, February 5, 1864
Died May 11,
1921, Erskine, Polk County, State of Minnesota
Torkild Torgersen was enlisted for 3 years in of the 15th Wisconsin by Captain Ole C. Johnson on October 22, 1861, at Madison, Dane County, State of Wisconsin. Torkild served in Company F, which was called K.K.'s Protectors in honor of the 15th's first Lieutenant Colonel, Kiler K. Jones. Torkel was mustered into Federal service as a Private (Menig) on November 6, 1861, at Madison. At the time he was 20 years old and not married. His residence was listed as Dane County, Wisconsin. He was recorded as being 6 feet tall with blue eyes and light color hair and complexion. His occupation was listed as Farmer.
In the Spring of 1862 Private Torgersen contracted chronic diarrhea while stationed at Island No. 10, Tennessee. Later he was listed as absent sick at Bowling Green, Kentucky, from September 17, 1862, until February, 1863. As a result he was not with the 15th at the battles of Perryville, Kentucky, or Stone River, also known as Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
Private Torgersen did fight in the bloody Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia. There he received a severe gunshot wound to the right thigh while in action near Viniard's Farm on the afternoon of September 19, 1863. He is said to have laid wounded for 3 days on the Confederate-controlled battlefield. On September 23, 1863, he was paroled to Federal forces in exchanged for a Confederate prisoner. He was subsequently sent to U.S. Army hospitals at: Chattanooga, Tennessee; Stevenson, Alabama; Nashville, Tennessee; and Madison, Wisconsin.
Because of his wound, Private Torgersen was transferred from the 15th to Company A of the 23rd Regiment of the Veterans Reserve Corps (V.R.C.) on January 7, 1864. He was honorably discharged from the Army on November 7, 1864, at Camp Reno in the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the expiration of his 3 year term of service.
After the war Torkild Torgersen returned to farming. Starting in 1878 he farmed near Lake Park, Becker County, Minnesota. In 1892 he moved to Erskine, Minnesota, where he owned a hotel and rooming house before going back to farming. He was exactly 80 years and 1 month old when he passed away there in 1921.
Sources: Genealogical information provided by Pete Chase; Det Femtende Regiment, Wisconsin Frivillage [The Fifteenth Regiment, Wisconsin Volunteers] by Ole A. Buslett (Decorah, Iowa, 1895); Oberst Heg og Hans Gutter [Colonel Heg and His Men] by Waldemar Ager (Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 1916); military service and pension records at the National Archives and Record Administration; and Regimental Descriptive Rolls, Volume 20 Office of the Adjutant General State of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin, 1885) and other military records at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin Archives.
This page Copyright by Scott Cantwell Meeker
of Deep
Vee Productions.
All Rights Reserved. Created January 25, 1999. Last updated October
31, 2000.