Summary Information
Peter Knudson Brye Letters
1863-1864, 1916
- Brye, Peter Knudson, 1841-1865
SC 611
0.1 c.f. (1 folder)
Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)
Civil War letters in Norwegian with English translations, primarily relating to Peter Brye; including two 1864 letters by Brye, Co. K, 25th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, a 1916 letter giving biographical information about him, and an 1863 letter by soldier O. Tolefson of an unknown regiment.
English
http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-sc00611 ↑ Bookmark this ↑
Biography/History
Peter Knudson [Brye] was a Norwegian immigrant farmer living in Coon Valley near Viroqua, Vernon County, Wisconsin, who on August 21, 1862, at the age of twenty-one, enlisted in Company K, 25th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the campaign in Georgia in 1864 and was killed in action at River's Bridge, South Carolina, on February 2, 1865. The regimental roster reports the following:
[he] was detailed as a Bugler for Regt and acted in that capacity until death / learned the use of the Bugal and could sound all calls promptly / was brave and energitic and was killed on the 2nd of February / He sounded forward and rode Branby up toward the enemys Baterz [batteries] in full sight in advance of the line and received a shell in the face blowing his head off.
Nothing is known of O. Tolefson other than that he was a Norwegian immigrant, probably from Wisconsin, who was in the Union Army. He is not listed in Wisconsin volunteer regiment rosters.
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists of four letters written in Norwegian: two letters, dated in 1864, from Peter Knudson Brye, who was at the time fighting in Georgia in the Civil War; and one letter, 1863, from another Wisconsin soldier, O. Tolefson -- so far as is known unrelated to Knudson. (Peter Knudson Brye is listed as Peter Knudson in Wisconsin Civil War records.) The fourth letter dated 1916, is from Knudson's niece, Martha Brye, and was written to Waldemar Ager, to whom she was sending Peter Knudson's letters and through whom the letters eventually were given to the State Historical Society. The two letters of Peter Knudson [Brye] are not the originals; they are handwritten transcriptions of the originals by Martha Brye. The letter from O. Tolefson, however, is probably original. Included are typewritten transcriptions of all four letters in Norwegian and English translations made by Archives processor Paul Rood with generous assistance from Assistant Professor Frankie Shackelford, Department of Scandinavian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, December 13, 1978.
Administrative/Restriction Information
Presented by Trygve M. Ager, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, February 1, 1967. Accession Number: M67-050
Processed by Paul Rood and Joanne Hohler, December 13, 1978.
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