Post-War Reflections

Captain Andrew A. Brown of Company H
October 22, 1866, letter to Major General Willich
inviting him to attend the first reunion of the 15th

"I can forget many things, but I can never forget how our people looked when they marched past Libby [Prison] on the way to the train to be sent south. The strongest ones naturally came first, then those who weren't as strong and could not keep up with their comrades, and they continued in this way until the column became more and more like a row of ghosts, until finally the last ones came, supported by their comrades and looking around with empty, wild glances, like skeletons who neither knew nor cared where they were going. This sight will follow me until my dying day, and now -- after many years -- I almost become sick when I think about it. I consider this bitter, cruel, inhuman treatment of our prisoners to be an unforgivable crime by the Rebel government, the blackest of all the black marks on its escutcheon. It would not have cost the Rebels anything to distribute to the prisoners what the [U.S.] government had sent, but instead of doing this, in accordance with the agreement, they stole the food and clothing from the prisoners who were starving and freezing to death."

--Lieutenant Colonel Ole C. Johnson of Field & Staff
post-war speech at Albion, Wisconsin
about the Confederate treatment of Union prisoners

"Well, no I have not made any request for a pension and I have none now, for when I returned from the war I was as well and sound as could be, although I since have had several attacks of the illness common at the time among veterans. I also had scurvy in a mild form when I was in the war but it left me but I cannot say whether the later ailments can be traced to this. Otherwise I didn't go into this war for a salary or a pension, but it is right that those who were injured in the defense of their country should be compensated for it."

--Sergeant John O. Wrolstad (Wraalstad) of Company I
article he wrote in the 1890's

"When I think about it I think it's strange that we got through it as we did, the way we had to sleep at night on the bare ground and in swamps so the creeks ran over us. Oh yes, it is very strange. No, I don't regret that I was in the war and was wounded. Even if I had never received a pension for it I still wouldn't regret it -- although with a leg like this I don't know how it would have been for me with such a big family -- and so I thank Uncle Sam."

--Karilisu Olson, believed to be Private Charles Olson of Company K
interview in Buslett's 1895 Femtende Regiment Wisconsin Frivillage

Private Ole Steensland of Company E
August 29, 1900, speech to a 15th Wisconsin reunion

"We figured in 26 engagements, 15 of which were important battles, the hardest fought being Chickamauga, where Col. Heg fell, and Stone River. I had a narrow escape from capture by the Confederates in the latter battle. It was a hard life and I was glad when it was over."

--Private Louis Rolfsen of Company C
January 22, 1933, Milwaukee Journal newspaper