During the American Civil War, Wilhelm Ramthun was a private in Company K of the 2nd Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, which was part of the Iron Brigade. Together with his parents and other family members, Ramthun had emigrated from his native Prussia sometime prior to 1860. They settled on a small farm near Kewaskum in Washington County, Wisconsin. (The name Ramthun or any variant spelling, does not appear in the 1855 census for Washington County.) While his father Christian (aged 62 in the 1860 census), his mother Sophia (67), his older brother Friedrich (26), and his sister Hanna (16) remained in Kewaskum, Wilhelm worked as a farm laborer near West Bend and later at Ashford in Fond du Lac County. On November 5, 1861, he enlisted as a Wisconsin volunteer from Washington County, and on December 20, 1861 was mustered into service at Madison. Ramthun saw action at the battles of Gainesville, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Fitzhugh's Crossing, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He was wounded in the abdomen on September 14, 1862 at South Mountain and in the right arm on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg. After amputation of the arm below the elbow and subsequent complications, Ramthun died on July 30, 1863 in a Gettysburg military hospital. He is buried at Gettysburg.
