On the eve of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Chickamauga this week, the State Senate adjourned in honor of Colonel Hans Christian Heg. Acting unanimously on a motion by Senator John Lehman (D-Racine), the Senate honored the life of a Racine County hero of the Civil War.
Heg, a native Norwegian who immigrated to Southeast Wisconsin, left his home in Wisconsin to serve in the Civil War and was mortally wounded on September 19, 1863.
“I was honored to have the opportunity to say a few words about Colonel Heg at the close of this week’s session,” Lehman said. “His hard-earned legacy of service to our communities here in Racine County and to our nation in the Civil War are well-known to anyone privileged to call Racine home or to visit our state’s Capitol.”
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Heg immigrated to the United States in 1840 and answered the call of the Gold Rush to California in 1849. He came back to southeastern Wisconsin where he rose to service as Chair of the Town of Norway, a Racine County Board Supervisor and as Wisconsin’s prison commissioner prior to his service in the Civil War. At the outset of hostilities, Wisconsin Governor Alexander Randall appointed Heg Colonel of the 15th Regiment of Wisconsin Volunteers.
One general dubbed Heg “the bravest of the brave” following a battle in which Heg’s horse was shot from beneath him. Col. Heg was later given command of a full brigade during the 1863 campaign in Tennessee and northern Alabama and Georgia.
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Col. Heg was wounded on September 19, 1863 in the bloody battle of Chickamauga. He died the following morning on September 20th.
“Hans Christian Heg is a source of pride to all Norwegian-Americans and to all of Racine and Wisconsin,” Lehman said. “Each time I arrive at the Capitol I am proud to pass a statue of Col. Heg given by Norwegian Americans to the people of Wisconsin in his honor.”
Heg is remembered with commemorative monuments in the Town of Norway in Racine County, at the State Capitol in Madison and in his home country of Norway.