Claus Lauritz Clausen, Lutheran Minister, and famous in Mitchell County, Iowa, for founding the town of St. Ansgar, was very busy and took time to serve as a Chaplain during the Civil War. This is largely the story of that service; which was in the 15th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry.
Claus was born on November 3, 1820, at Aeroe, Fyen Stift, Denmark. His parents were Erik Clausen and Karen Pedersdatter Clausen. He was married in 1842, in Denmark, to Martha F. Rasmussen of Langeland. Later inlife he would be married to a Mrs. Birgitte L. Pedersen. Claus immigrated to America in 1843; and after doing many great works, he died in 1892, at Paulsbo, Washington--and was buried in Austin, Minnesota, not far from the town of St. Ansgar, which he founded.
Claus Clausen at one point, while still in Europe, suffered from Tuberculosis, and while recuperating in Norway he met a Mr. T. O. Bakke. Mr. Bakke told Claus that his son, Soren, was in Muskego, Wisconsin, in the United States, and that Muskego lacked a religious leader. Claus accepted the opportunity.
Later, the now Reverend Claus Clausen was Pastor of the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, founded in 1844 on the shore of Whitewater Lake in the Town of Heart Prairie, near the present day City of Whitewater, Walworth County, State of Wisconsin. In 1851 he co-founded the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod, at Rock Prairie, Wisconsin. That same year he became the Editor of the first Norwegian Lutheran Church newspaper in America, which was published in the City of Racine, Racine County, Wisconsin.
In 1852 he became the first Editor of
Emigranten, the first Norwegian language secular newspaper in America. He and his paper crusaded against slavery. Due to ill-health Claus then moved west, this time to the Iowa. In 1853 he founded Saint Ansgar, in Mitchell County, Iowa. And during the 1856-57 period he represented that area in the Iowa Legislature.
Rev. Claus L. Clausen
Circa 1862Then, at the recommendation of the 15th Wisconsin Infantry's Colonel Hans C. Heg, Wisconsin Governor Randall commissioned Reverend Clausen as the 15th's Chaplain. The commission was dated December 11, 1861, with rank from the same date, and was for a three-year term of service. Chaplain Clausen was mustered into Federal service at that rank on February 28, 1862, to date from February 13, 1862, at Camp Randall, City of Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin. At the time he was 43 years old and not married.
Chaplain Clausen was very popular with the 15th's soldiers. In his honor the men of Company K named themselves "Clausen's Guards." In Buslett's 1895 history of the 15th Wisconsin, Chaplain Clausen wrote the following about the regiment's first few months of existence.
"As long as the Regiment remained in Camp Randall, the men were exposed to the worst kinds of temptations. There were, in fact, several other regiments in the camp at the same time; discipline was very poor and many of the soldiers got permission to roam about town. Under such circumstances one cannot be surprised that some members of the Scandinavian Regiment also went astray, went to drinking houses, got drunk, etc., but this was certainly the exception; most of the Regiment's men were respectable and sober. After the Regiment left Camp Randall, and especially after some of the less-sober among the officers were forced to leave, its condition in this regard became significantly better and could now equal, if not exceed, any other regiment in the service."
In early March, 1862, the 15th departed Camp Randall and left Wisconsin for the war. The regiment then participated in the successful siege of Island No. 10 on the Mississippi River in the State of Tennessee, and the surprise raid on Union City, Tennessee, in March and April, 1862. It was after the 15th took possession of Island No. 10 that the following incident, recounted in Buslett's book, took place.
"Field Chaplain Clausen was no scared rabbit. We were on Island Number 10. One dark night there was a storm, and the alarm was sounded. There was confusion: the calls of the officers could not be heard above the noise of the wind and the heavy rain. They tried to organize their men, but in that kind of weather and darkness there was plenty of opportunity to sneak away, and there were always some who were afraid. Clausen met one of them behind a shed and tried to persuade the man to stay, but it didn't do any good. So then he shamed him, but that didn't help either. 'So go with your rifle,' said the Chaplain and he immediately joined the ranks, determined to fight to the death in this man's place. This time it was a false alarm, but no one knew that at the time."
Island No. 10 was considered by the 15th's soldiers to be an unhealthy place. This was due to its low, swampy nature which, together with Mississippi River drinking water and poor quality rations, caused a number of the 15th's soldiers to become sick and die. In Buslett's book, Chaplain Clausen described what took place in a typical burial:
"The dead were buried in the best possible manner, considering the circumstances. The corpse was laid in a simple coffin and accompanied to the grave with music and a fitting procession. After prayers were said by the pastor, the coffin was lowered, the grave filled, and a farewell salute fired over it. Then a simple grave marker was raised, which consisted of a piece of wood on which the deceased's name was carved, along with his company and regiment and the time he died. On behalf of the deceased's relatives the pastor now thanked his comrades for this last proof of their friendship, whereupon the procession returned to the camp with muted drums."
Chaplain Clausen was often entrusted with letters and money from the 15th's soldiers to take back home for them. On June 5, 1862, he was granted 40 days leave by Major General Halleck to attend a meeting of his Synod on June 12th in Goodhue County, Minnesota, and to take care of pressing financial matters. He returned in time to be listed as "absent on detached duty at Iuka", Mississippi, starting August 21, 1862. It is believed he was attending to the 15th's soldiers who had been left sick there. Chaplain Clausen discussed ministering to the sick in this passage from Buslett.
"I always found my most fertile ground in the hospital, and I often felt strengthened by the conversations I had with the sick. Many times I found great ignorance of and a lack of interest in those things that do not belong to this life, but in no case, as far as I can remember, did I find open ungodliness or hardness. On the contrary, the sick received me with joy shining on their faces and listened with eagerness when I explained God's word to them."
Chaplain Clausen's military career came to an end after only 11 months when he resigned his commission. In his resignation letter to Major General Rosecrans, commander of the 14th Army Corps, Clausen gave as his reasons as the unmet needs of 8 church congregations back at home who were asking for his return, and a marked decline in his health due to the hardships of active military service. His resignation was accepted, effective November 26, 1862. Chaplain Clausen made the following remarks in Buslett about the 15th's religious and moral condition.
After the war, Pastor Clausen visited Norway and served as the Iowa Commissioner to the Paris Exposition in 1867. In 1868 he resigned from the Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Synod over theological differences. He helped organize the Norwegian-Danish Evangelical Lutheran Conference two years later, becoming its first President. Later in life he moved to the State of Virginia, and then to the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before moving to Austin, Minnesota, in 1878. His last few years were spent living with his son in Paulsbo, Washington, where he died.
Ever since his arrival in Muskego, Wisconsin in 1843, Rev. Clausen's name was woven into the principal events of the history of the Norwegian Lutherans of this country. He administered faithfully to the spiritual needs of the pioneers, an continually travelled between the scattered settlements in the upper midwest.
Submitted by Kathy Pike, Aug. 2004.
Edited by K. L. Kittleson