The Fifteenth Wisconsin Regiment of Volunteers, consisting of about 900 men, whose organization was decided upon at a mass meeting held in the Capitol at Madison, in September, 1861, was made up almost entirely of Norwegians and Swedes, some of whom had been in the United States less than a year. Hans C. Heg, one of the early leaders of the Norwegian immigration into Wisconsin, was appointed colonel of the regiment and began organization at Camp Randall, near Madison, in the following December.[174] The roster of officers indicates plainly their origin, including such names as Rev. C. L. Clausen, Thorkildson, Hansen, Grinager, Skofstad, Ingmundson, Tjentland, and Solberg.[175] The regiment left for the front in March, 1862, and participated in the operations of the next three years in Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Georgia. It was mustered out at Chattanooga in February, 1865, having lost about 300, quite one-third of its total enlistment, from deaths in battle or in the hospitals, including Colonel Heg, who was killed at Chickamauga.[176] Its record is summed up by the military historian of Wisconsin who states that it was "one of the bravest and most efficient regiments that Wisconsin sent to the field."[177] [174] Enander, _Borgerkrigen i de Forenede Stater_, 106; Dietrichson, _Det Femtende Wisconsin Regiments Historie_, ch. i. [175] Dietrichson, "The Fifteenth Wisconsin, or Scandinavian, Regiment," _Scandinavia_, I, 297 ff. [176] Nelson, _History of Scandinavians_, I, 166. [177] Quiner, _The Military History of Wisconsin_ (ch. xxiii, "Regimental Histories--15th Infantry"), 631.