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Chickamauga Memories15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry
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Surgeon Stephen Oliver Himo of Field & Staff
Resigned soon after
the death of his
brother-in-law Colonel
Hans C. Heg
Photo Collection PH2361, State Historical
Society of Wisconsin
Picture appearing above has been electronically enhanced
by Deep Vee Productions
The following quotes are by 15th soldiers about their experiences from May, 1863 up through the September 19-20, 1863, Battle of Chickamauga, Georgia -- the second bloodiest battle of the American Civil War.
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"I have taken command of the Brigade and fixed up my Head Quarters in grand style. Dr. [Stephen] Himoe is my Brigade Surgeon [Captain Henry] Hauff is my Adjt. [Adjutant] General -- [Captain] Albert Skofstad is my Inspector General...Everything is quiet here again -- no fighting. I have a good deal to do in organizing my new command. The fact is I have been put in command of this Brigade for the purpose of making it more efficient -- and I am going to try my best to do it. Gen. Carlin issued a very complimentary order to our Regiment [the 15th] when we left his Brigade." |
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--Colonel Hans C. Heg of 3rd
Brigade Field & Staff |
| "The weather has been beautiful since our arrival hear though it is some what hot and oppressive. Being camped in a fine shady grove we are some what sheltered from the sun and relieved from the heat. We were paid off a few days ago for four months." |
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Captain
Andrew A. Brown, of
Company H |
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"...our little 15th is verry small hardly two hundred men but we have as good reputasion as any regment of Wisconsin for we are the boys that fear no noise, although we'r far from home..." |
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--Private George Branstad of
Company A |
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"You asked of me in your letter to tell you about my camp but I do not hardly know what to say. O it would fill you with astonishment and surprise to see how the soldier lives. it would be strange for you to see my present home in a small tent not over 6 feet by 8 lives three men and I can assure you we have it fixed up pritty comfortable. (excuse my plain way of explainning myself) we have a bed fixed up though it is rough it is comfortable and takes up more than half our room. we have also a table and on the top of the table and on one end is our cobord wich is made of a crackerbox in wich we keep our dishes wich for my part consists of a cup and a knife and spoon thus we live for the present. thies little tents are called dog tents and thay are the only shelter we have in camp or on march. the dog tents of the company are set in two roes forming a street between them and over our tents we have a cover made of green leaves to keep of the sun. behiend our tents about twelve yards is the officers tents and also behiend them is the Colonels tents. thus fixed it makes a nise show especially when the tents are new but anough of tents. I will now tell you what we gennerely have to do in the morning at five o'clock we are called out to role call and we next sweep out our tents and we also have role call at twelve and 5 and 8 in the afternoon we have also to go on guard every two or three days but I must wiend up with this nonsens for I have not time for anny more of it now." |
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--Private George Branstad
of Company A |
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"Friday afternoon I rec'd orders to move imidiately. My Brigade was to have the honor of crossing the Tennessee River in advance of the Army and to lay the Pontoons. We marched to the River that night -- 4 miles -- I was up all night and made preparations for the mornings work. The Rebel Pickets being in sight on the other side of the River, and near enough so we could talk to them. At 7 o'clock in the Morning all was ready. My whole Brigade in the Boats. We went over expecting to be shot at, But all went well. We were the first across the River and moved right up on the [Sand] Mountain without any fighting a[nd] very little skirmishing. In the afternoon, Old Rosey [General Rosecrans] and [General] McCook paid us a visit...It was quite a compliment to our Brigade to have the advance." |
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--Colonel Hans C. Heg of 3rd
Brigade Field & Staff |
| "We crossed the Tennessee River yesterday morning in Poontons. Just as sunrise came over Fifty poontons might be seen pushing out from the North Side of the River covered with the soldiers of the Third (Heg's) Brigade. It was a most beautiful scene and I only regret that the artist did not arrive in time to take it." |
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Captain
Andrew A. Brown of
Company H |
| "We have continued to march since I last wrote, and are still laying here ready at a moment's notice for anything. The Rebels are in our front and we may have to fight him a Battle -- if we do it will be apt to be a big one. Do not feel uneasy for me. I am well and in good spirits -- and trusting to my usual good luck. I shall use all the caution and courage I am capable of and leave the rest to take care of itself. The soldies are in tollerable good condition. Many of ours however have marched hard and had rough time for the last two weeks and ought to have a few days rest before fighting...Old Rosey's Head Quarters are only a few miles from here. I think, if it is true that the Rebels have not gone, that he will give them one of the biggest whippings they ever had...So far Rosey's Army has gained a tremendeous vistory by forcing Bragg to leave Chattanooga...Good Bye my darling -- write often, but do not expect to hear from me very often till the campaign is over." |
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--Colonel Hans C. Heg of 3rd Brigade Field &
Staff |
| "Issued rations at 11 o'clock night. Very cold indeed." |
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--Acting Commissary Sergeant William A. Fisher of
15th Field & Staff |
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"Most of the company had gone to rest when the order came. Now all are on their feet. Five of us now sit around a table and write and at all places they sit and write in haste to their home, some to their wife, others to parents and brothers and sisters, and others struggle getting their rations packed. It is now 12 o'clock at night and bad weather is beginning. It is now thundering and lightning and a storm will break loose before dawn. We will soon find out that we will be sent up to the front, thought we are far from it. Dearly beloved wife, you must not worry because of this, because the Almighty rules over all things. Everybody is in good spirits and anxious to get going... I shall write again soon. Adieu my greatly beloved wife, from your devoted husband." |
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--Sergeant Rollin Olson of Company
E |
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"At two o'clock on the afternoon of the first day, September 19, 1863, fighting broke out with great fury. The rebels were better prepared for the battle than were the men from the North. As the various divisions of the North were thrown into battle, they stemmed the tide for awhile, only to be driven back. Division after division was thrown into battle. Your nearest and dearest friends fell beside you but everyone fought on with a stolid indifference. Oh how welcome is night on such a day as that! You look wistfully at the sun after each impetuous onset and it seems to you that he never moved so slowly before. What would you not give at such a time as this for the power to make the sun, not like Joshua of old stand still, but to move a little faster." |
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--Lieutenant Colonel Ole C.
Johnson of 15th Field & Staff |
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"I found the Colonel at Crawfish Spring where our division hospital is established. A minie ball has entered the right thigh internal to the trochanter and traversing the abdominal cavity emerged in the left iliac region. He is fully aware that his wound is mortal..." |
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--Surgeon Stephen O. Himoe
of 3rd Brigade Field and Staff |
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"...about 60 of the Regt left, as hard a Fifht [sic] as at Murfreesboro. Issued beef..." |
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--Acting Commissary Sergeant William A. Fisher of 15th Field &
Staff |
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"Then came the gloomy morning of the 20th when the few of us that were left formed into line of battle. We had orders not to retreat in face of the fact that four strong columns of rebels were charging our weak and scattered line...These were nerve straining moments when boyhood chums were dropping dead or wounded all around me. Ole Milestone [Milesten] was killed on my right, Chris [Christian] Thompson on my left. I got a bullet through my hat and that did no harm, but I was taken prisoner, and that was something that did hurt." |
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--Private Ole Steensland of Company
E |
| "We now constituted the reserve, and indulged the hope that perhaps our services might not be needed that day, but no sooner did the fight open at the front than we were ordered forward. When we arrived near the front we were halted for some time. But as the men in front of us [Buell's Brigade of Wood's Division] were moved to other parts of the field, we moved up and occupied the front line about 12 o'clock, taking our position behind some rude breast-works that had been put up for protection. We had been there but a short time, when the enemy [believed to be the 1st Tennessee Battalion and 50th Tennessee] came up and endeavored to carry the position by storm, but we had a splendid range; the ground in front of us was open, and we drove them back with great slaughter. They soon rallied, however, and came upon us again, but were driven back as before. After the second repulse I looked toward the left and saw the regiment on our left [the 8th Kansas] was already some distance to the rear and the rebels [believed to be the 17th Tennessee] getting over the breast works. I beheld with surprise and chagrin that the rebels had met with no opposition there at all in their second charge, but knowing there was a line in our rear I still held on with the hope that the rebels would be checked by them. On looking towards the right I saw that the regiment to the right of us [believed to be the 25th Illinois] had also given way, and that we were almost entirely surrounded. By this time a part of our regiment had also broken and was a few paces in the rear, and the next moment I was without much ceremony requested to march to the rebel rear. One officer beside myself, and twenty-five enlisted men were captured at the same time, the rest escaped." |
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--Lieutenant Colonel Ole C.
Johnson of 15th Field & Staff |
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"The Col. died at fifteen minutes before 12 o'clock Mr. [noon] and I sent his remains immediately to Chattanooga in charge of Lt [Selah] Mathews... It was agonizing to stand beside the Col and see him suffer and die -- Col La Grange of the 1st Wis Cav, and other friends who called to see him, wept like children. Everybody who knew him loved him. He was not only a noble patriot, but a true Christian and died peacefully and calmly, fully persuaded of a glorious immortality thro' Jesus..." |
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--Surgeon Stephen O. Himoe
of 3rd Brigade Field and Staff |
| "Darling wife: Our sorrow is very great, this is no time for tears. Our brave army crushed and bleeding, our best and noblest men torn and dying require the most careful and devoted attention that the surgeon has in his power to render. Our army is terribly broken by vastly overwhelming numbers, but concentrated around Chattanooga, will never surrender the place to the enemy while a single battalion remains to die in its defence. The country must and shall be saved. The regiment today numbers 130 men, and works in the trenches in front. [Lieutenant] Colonel [Ole C.] Johnson and Captain [Hans] Hansen are missing and probably killed. My duty is here for the present and I am content. God bless and console you." |
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--Surgeon
Stephen O. Himoe of
3rd Brigade Field & Staff |
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"I have now been in three great battles, but this was the hardest one... I received a visit from a bullet that went through my trousers below the knee, without harming me. Yes, it is a great favor of God our father, who delivers us in such dark moments, when bullets rain over us like a hailstorm, and we have a mighty army to fight against." |
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--Private John Johnson (Thoe) of
Company K |
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Scott Cantwell Meeker of Deep
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All Rights Reserved. Created December 5,
1999. Last updated December 4, 2000.