Two Immigrants for the Union.' Their Civil War Letters - Norwegian ...

Lars and Knud Dokken
From my brother I have not heard since he left.
There is an island in the Mississippi called Island No.
10, which is stoutly held by the Rebels and which the
North has tried to capture with their cannonboats, but it
is so strongly fortified they have not been able to take it.
It lies a ways down from New Madrid. They cannot use
land troops, therefore not aur regiment. 13
Y o ur laving son,
Lars Olsen Dokken
4. WE TAKE ISLAND NO. 10
[The tap part of this letter is missing; the date is apparently
April 18, 1862.]
On April 2, I again joined my regiment, which was
encamped farther down the Mississippi River. There I
met my brother who is full of vigor and in good health in
all respects.
We see by your letter that you received the $35 we
sent from Madison and that you paid back the person
whom we owed. But we don't know when we will get
our pay. Surely, as soon as we receive it, we will send
same home. We should have it on May first, but it is not
certain. Certainly we should get it at regular periods. 14
And now I must tell you about an engagement we had
on March 31. We were about 500 men from our regiment
and 7 companies of the 27th Illinois Regiment, a company
of cavalry, and one of artillery. So we were about
1,400 men. We left our camp on the 30th and marched
part of the way that day. That night we encamped in a
grain field. The next morning we were out early and
reached the enemy camp when they were about to have
breakfast. Our cavalry and artillery began fire, which
surprised them so that they took flight like bewildered
sheep. They left everything behind, guns and clothing
and many other things. But the enemy was pretty strong;
we believe about 3,000 or 4,000 .... [Tap ofl.etter page
miss ing.]
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