Karl Olsson Torbenson

Blev 82 år.

Äktenskap med Aasne Nielsdatter (1840 - 1925)

Noteringar

EMIGRATION - 1847
Carl emigrated in 1847, with his parents and siblings, to Muskego, Wisconsin. The ship that they emigrated on is unknown.

MILITARY - 1861
Carl Torbjornsen was enlisted by Captain Frederick Berg in Company C of the 15th Wisconsin. Carl joined up on November 22 or 28, 1861, at the City of Madison, Dane County, State of Wisconsin, for a 3 year term of service. Company C was the regimental Color Company, but its members called themselves the Norway Bear Hunters. Carl was mustered into Federal service as a Private on February 14, 1862, at Camp Randall, near Madison, Wisconsin. At the time he was recorded as being 19 years old and not married. He was listed as having blue eyes, brown hair, a fair complexion, and standing 5 feet 10 inches tall. His residence was listed as Town of Muskego, Waukesha County, Wisconsin, and his occupation as "Farmer."

After several months at Camp Randall learning to be a soldier, Private Torbjornsen left there in early March, 1862, with his company and regiment to join the war. From then until June 30, 1862, his whereabouts were not recorded. It is believed that he was with the 15th. As such he would have participated in the successful siege of Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River in the State of Tennessee, and the surprise raid on Union City, Tennessee, in March and April, 1862. From June, 1862, until September, 1863, Private Torbjornsen was listed as "present" with the 15th. That summer he would have been with the regiment on campaign through Tennessee and the States of Mississippi and Alabama. In August and September he would have participated 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 short of water.

Private Torbjornsen would then have been present at the October 8, 1862, 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. On December 26, 1862, he would have participated in the 15th's desperate charge upon a Confederate artillery battery at Knob Gap, Tennessee, just south of the City of Nashville. There the 15th captured a brass cannon. Private Torbjornsen is known to have fought at the long, cold, wet, and bloody Battle of Stone River, Tennessee, also called the Battle of Murfreesboro, on December 30-31, 1862. It is there that the 15th first suffered serious battle casualties, and was cited for bravery. One of those cited was Private Torbjornsen. The following is from Buslett's 1895 history of the 15th Wisconsin.

"After the battle General Rosecrans issued an order to the various regiments' commanders to submit to headquarters a list of one sergeant, two corporals and four or five privates in each company (altogether no more than six from each company), who had shown the greatest courage and ability during the battle. These would be entered on the Roll of Honor."

At the recommendation of the 15th's commander, Colonel Hans C. Heg, Private Torbjornsen was entered on the Roll of Honor for the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division, 20th Army Corps.

Private Torbjornsen camped with the 15th in the Murfreesboro area for the next 6 months, except for 2 weeks in February when it was sent to the Town of Franklin, Tennessee. Starting June 23, 1863, the regiment took part in General Rosecrans' Tullahoma campaign. On July 3, 1863, it camped at Winchester, Tennessee. On August 17, 1863, the 15th left there to participate in General Rosecran's Chickamauga campaign. Private Torbjornsen is believed to have been present at the daring early morning crossing of the Tennessee River on August 28th, which the 15th led. He was present at the September 19-20, 1863, fighting at Chickamauga, Georgia -- the second bloodiest battle of the Civil War. Some 63% of the 15th's soldiers who were at Chickamauga were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. There during the vicious fighting near Viniard's Farm on the afternoon of the first day Private Torbjornsen received a "...gunshot wound in the right arm below the elbow which carried away a portion of the bone and severed the cords of the right arm."

Private Torbjornsen was then absent from the 15th until sometime in mid-July, 1864. He spent the period recovering from his wound as well as from "fever" and "Chronic Diarrhoea." He was treated in Army hospitals at the cities of Chattanooga and Nashville in Tennessee, then at Jeffersonville in the State of Indiana, and finally at Madison, Wisconsin. He was in Madison from May 16 until July 6, 1864, when he was officially "Returned to duty, cured." Private Torbjornsen was then listed as "present" with the 15th until December, 1864.

When Private Torbjornsen returned to the 15th was about half way through General William T. Sherman's campaign to capture the City of Atlanta, Georgia. This campaign was marked by almost daily marching and/or combat from early May to early September, 1864. Private Torbjornsen may have rejoined the regiment in time to take part in its fighting before Atlanta on July 22, 1864. It is likely he was with the 15th when it fought at Jonesboro, Georgia, on September 1, 1864, and at Lovejoy Station, Georgia, on September 4, 1864.

After a rest following the capture of Atlanta in early September, 1864, the 15th was briefly assigned to Provost (police) duty in Chattanooga at the beginning of October, 1864. This was followed by several months of guarding a railroad bridge at Whitesides, Tennessee, which some of the 15th's soldiers felt was the easiest duty of their war service. On November 7, 1864, Private Torbjornsen was appointed to the rank of 3rd Corporal of Company C.

On December 31, 1864, Corporal Torbjornsen was mustered out of Federal service with most of the surviving members of Company C in Chattanooga at the expiration of his 3 year term of service. At the time the Army noted that he had drawn $70.20 worth of clothing since June 30, 1863, had last been paid on August 31, 1864, and was owed $100 of enlistment bounty. Corporal Torbjornsen was paid off and sent back to Wisconsin.

After the war Carl Torbjornsen farmed in Eureka Township, Dakota County, Minnesota, where he married and raised 5 children to adulthood. It is said that Carl helped search for Jesse James and his gang after they robbed a bank in the Town of Northfield, Minnesota. In 1887 Carl moved his family to the Town of Minot, State of North Dakota, where he operated a boarding house. In 1904 he moved near the Town of Abbotsford, Province of British Columbia, Canada, where he farmed for a few years. He then moved to Bellingham, Washington, where he farmed and then retired.

Sources: Genealogical data provided by Craig Torbenson; Civil War Compiled Military Service Records by Office of Adjutant General of the United States (Washington, DC); 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); 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 1 Office of the Adjutant General State of Wisconsin (Madison, Wisconsin, 1886), 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, The Scandinavian Regiment by Scott Cantwell Meeker of Deep Vee Productions.

1860 CENSUS
Eureka Twp., Dakota Co., Minnesota, page 233
Carl Thorbenso, age 37, farmer, born in Norway
Osne Thorbenso, age 40, born in Norway
Lusianna Thorbenso, age 10, born in Mn
O Neilly Thorbenso, age 7, born in Mn
Celia Thorbenso, age 5, born in Mn
Julianna Thorbenso, age 9/12, born in Mn

1880 CENSUS
Eureka Twp., page 238D
Carl Thorbenson, age 37, farmer, born in Norway
Osne Thorbenson, age 40, born in Norway
Lusianna Thorbenson, age 10, born in Mn
O Neilly Thorbenson, age 7, born in Mn
Celia Thorbenson, age 5, born in Mn
Julianna Thorbenson, age 9/12, born in Mn
Turge Ostenson, age 24, farm laborer, born in Norway
Anne Johaneson, age 62, domestic servant, widow, born in Norway

OBITUARY - 1925
TORBENSON, Carl
Carl Torbenson, who served with Company C, Fifteenth Wisconsin regiment, as a corporal in the Civil war and who was a member of J. B. Steedman post No. 24, G. A. R., died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. H. P. Weber, 1811 D street, Sunday morning, aged 82 years. Mr. Torbenson was a member of the Bethlehem Lutheran church and had lived here eighteen years. The surviving relatives are one son, A. M. Torbenson, Seattle; four daughters, Mrs. P. P. Lee, Mrs. P. P. Andreas and Mrs. H. P. Weber of this city and Mrs. A. J. Thompson of Conrad, Mont.; fifteen grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 1 p. m. at Arthur C. Harlow's mortuary, with the Rev. J. Torval Norby officiating. Interment will occur in Bay View cemetery beside the remains of Mr. Torbenson's wife, who died here April 19, 1925. (The Bellingham Herald, July 20, 1925)

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