Colonel Hans Christian Heg - 15th Wisconsin

1:30 scale handmade tin soldier of Colonel Hans Christian Heg from the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry - which was the Scandinavian regiment that participated in the American Civil War. This regiment consisted mainly of Norwegian immigrants, along with some Danes and Swedes. The tin soldier is inspired and sculpted based on images of the statue of Colonel Heg that stands in front of the State Capitol building in Wisconsin. Similar statues have been erected on the original Heg family farm in Lier, Norway, and in the “Colonel Heg Memorial Park” in Racine County, USA. Hans Christian Heg was born in Lier, Norway, on December 21, 1829, and emigrated to the USA from Norway as a child in 1840. He spent his youth in Muskego, in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. As a young man, he went to California during the Gold Rush and stayed there from 1849-1851. He returned to Wisconsin in 1851 to manage the family farm. Later, Heg entered local politics, serving on the county board (1855-1857) and joining the newly formed Republican Party. In 1859, Heg was elected as the state’s prison commissioner. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Heg dedicated the state’s prison work to the war effort. In the fall of 1861, a new Scandinavian regiment was recruited, and Heg accepted the appointment as its colonel. The 15th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, which mainly consisted of Norwegian immigrants, began training at Camp Randall in December and left for the South on March 2, 1862. On March 31, the 15th Wisconsin defeated a group of Confederates in Union City, Kentucky. When Island No. 10 fell on April 8, most of the regiment moved into Tennessee. They moved through Nashville to Perryville, Kentucky, where Heg safely led his regiment through their first major battle on October 8, 1862. On December 30, 1862, in the Battle of Stones River, Heg’s regiment lost more than 100 men. His horse was shot from under him, and his general called him “the bravest of the brave.” In February 1863, Heg was put in command of the entire brigade and pursued fleeing Confederate troops through Tennessee and across the state line to Chickamauga, Georgia. At Chickamauga, the Confederates resisted. On September 19-20, 1863, Heg’s brigade was outnumbered, and the 15th Wisconsin again lost more than 100 soldiers. On the afternoon of September 19, 1863, Heg led his troops forward when he was shot in the abdomen. He managed to stay in the saddle for a short time, but blood loss forced him to leave the battlefield and go to a hospital behind the lines. Colonel Hans Christian Heg died the next day.