Heg was born at Haugestad in the community of
Lierbyen in
Lier,
Buskerud,
Norway on December 21, 1829. He was the eldest of the four children of the innkeeper Even Hansen Heg (1790–1850) and his wife Sigrid "Siri" Olsdatter Kallerud Heg (1799–1842).[2] The family moved to America in 1840, settling in the
Muskego Settlement in Wisconsin.[3][4] Hans Heg was eleven years old when his family arrived in Muskego. He soon earned a reputation for himself as being a gifted boy.[5]
Career
At twenty years old, lured by the discovery of gold in the
Sacramento Valley, he and three friends joined the army of "
Forty-Niners". He spent the next two years prospecting for gold in
California.[3][4] Upon the death of his father, he returned to the Muskego area in 1851.[3][4] He married Gunhild Einong (1833–1922), daughter of a Norwegian immigrant.[4]
Heg was a major in the 4th Wisconsin Militia, and became a rising young politician who found slavery abhorrent.[6][7] He was an outspoken
anti-slavery activist and a leader of Wisconsin's
Wide Awakes, an anti-
slave catcher militia.[8][9] He became an ardent member of the
Free Soil Party,[10] and soon joined the recently formed
Republican Party. In 1859, Heg was elected commissioner of the
state prison in Waupun, and served there for two years.[3] He was the first Norwegian-born candidate elected statewide in Wisconsin.[4] Heg spearheaded many
reforms to the prison, believing that prisons should be used to "reclaim the wandering and save the lost".[11] On August 1, 1860, at great risk to his career, he provided shelter to
Sherman Booth, a man who was made a federal fugitive after inciting a mob to rescue an
escaped slave.[12]
Military service
With the outbreak of the
Civil War, Heg was appointed by Governor
Alexander Randall as colonel of the
15th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment. Appealing to all young "Norsemen," he said, "the government of our adopted country is in danger. It is our duty as brave and intelligent citizens to extend our hands in defense of the cause of our Country and of our homes."[13] The 15th Wisconsin was called the
Scandinavian Regiment because its soldiers were almost all immigrants from Norway, with some from
Denmark and
Sweden. It was the only all-Scandinavian regiment in the Union Army. On 8 October 1862, Colonel Heg led his regiment into its first action at the
Battle of Perryville. Despite being under fire while being driven back several miles by the enemy, the 15th Wisconsin suffered few casualties and no fatalities. However, one of those hurt was Colonel Heg, who was injured when his horse fell.
On September 18, 1863, Heg led his brigade at the
Battle of Chickamauga, where was mortally wounded. On the evening of September 19, the first day of the battle, he was shot in the abdomen by a
Confederate sharpshooter. He rallied his troops, but eventually had to give over his command.[4] He was taken to a field hospital at
Crawfish Spring, where he died on the morning of September 20.[15] A surgeon who witnessed his passing recalled that "it was agonizing to stand beside the colonel and see him suffer and die.
Colonel La Grange of the
First Wisconsin Cavalry and other friends who called to see him wept like children. Everybody who knew him loved him." Upon hearing of his death, Rosecrans expressed regret, saying "I am very sorry to hear that Heg has fallen. He was a brave officer, and I intended to promote him to be
general."[16] Heg was one of five Wisconsinite colonels killed as a result of combat during the Civil War.[17] "Colonel Hans C. Heg was Acting Brigadier General of the Third Brigade,
Davis' Division, and therefore the highest ranking officer from Wisconsin killed in the Civil War."[18]
A
statue of Hans Christian Heg by
Paul Fjelde was installed at the King Street approach to the State Capitol in
Madison, Wisconsin in 1925.[21] On June 23, 2020, rioters incensed by the arrest of a member of
Black Lives Matter used a towing vehicle to pull the statue down. It was then vandalized, decapitated and thrown into
Lake Monona. The words "black is beautiful" were spray-painted on the plinth, just above Heg's name. Forward, a statue designed by
Jean Pond Miner Coburn to represent the state of Wisconsin, was also pulled down.[22][23] Both statues were later recovered by the authorities,[24] though Heg's was said to have lost a leg.[25]
On July 20, 2020, the Wisconsin Capitol and Executive Residence Board voted unanimously to restore both Heg's statue and Forward to their original condition and placement atop their pedestals.[26] Since his statue's head was still missing,[27] state officials planned to create a new one using a statue of Heg in the town of
Norway as a model.[28][29] The state of Wisconsin received a grant of $30,000 from the
National Endowment for the Humanities the following October towards the expense of repairing of both the Heg and Forward statues. The statues were taken to Detroit where Venus Bronze Works Inc. worked to restore them, with reinstallation on the Capitol grounds then anticipated by July 2021.[30][31] By mid-September 2021, Heg's statue was "nearly ready to be shipped to Wisconsin".[32]
On September 21, 2021, the statue was reinstated.[33]
A replica statue stands in Heg's birthplace at Haugestad in the community of
Lierbyen in
Lier, Norway. It was a gift by Norwegian-Americans to the people of Norway. The unveiling of this statue took place on
Midsummer Day, June 24, 1925.[35]
Heg Memorial Park in
Racine County is named in his honor.[36] Heg Memorial Park Museum is located on Heg Park Road in Wind Lake, Wisconsin.[37] His original homestead house is located a short distance from the Heg Memorial Park.
Another house formerly owned by Hans Christian Heg was located at the current site of the
Waterford, Wisconsin, Public Library.
^Blegen, Theodrore C., editor. Civil War Letters of Colonel H. C. Heg
^Images of America: Waupun. Gunnink, Carla J. and the Waupun Historical Society, 2014.
^Butler, Diane S. "The Public Life and Private Affairs of Sherman M. Booth". Wisconsin Magazine of History. Spring 1999: 190–192.
^Historic Heg Memorial Park, Racine County, Wisconsin. 1940
^Hunt, Roger D. (2019). Colonels in Blue - Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin: A Civil War Biographical Dictionary. McFarland. p. 245.
ISBN9781476626352.
^Frank L. Klement, Wisconsin in the Civil War: The Home Front and the Battle Front, 1861-1865. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1997.
^Cozzens, Peter (1992). This Terrible Sound: THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA. University of Illinois Press; Illustrated edition. pp. 289–290.
ISBN0252065948.
^Colbo, Ella Stratton (1975). Historic Heg Memorial Park: photographic views and brief historical sketches of the outstanding points of interest in and about Heg Memorial Park, Racine County, Wisconsin. University of Wisconsin-Madison Library, The State of Wisconsin Collection: Racine County Historical Society. p. 35.
^Williams, Greg H. (2014). The Liberty Ships of World War II A Record of the 2,710 Vessels and Their Builders, Operators and Namesakes, with a History of the Jeremiah O'Brien. McFarland, Incorporated. pp. 204–205.
ISBN9781476617541.
^"Kaiser Permanente No. 2, Richmond CA". Shipbuilding History: Construction records of U.S. and Canadian shipbuilders and boatbuilders. October 13, 2010.
Archived from the original on February 16, 2020. Retrieved June 27, 2020.
Ager, Waldemar, Colonel Heg and His Boys: A Norwegian Regiment in the American Civil War. Northfield, Minn.: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 2000.
Buslett, Ole Amundsen. The Fifteenth Wisconsin (trans. of Det Femtende regiment Wisconsin frivillige). Ripon, Wis.: B.G. Scott, 1999.
"
Hans Christian Heg". In Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library (comp.) The Wisconsin Blue Book 1933. Madison: Democrat Printing Co., 1933, pp. 37–41.
Heg, Hans Christian, The Civil War Letters of Colonel Hans Christian Heg. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2014.
Lovoll, Odd S, Colonel Hans Christian Heg and the Norwegian American Experience, Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2023.
Naeseth, Gerhard B, Norwegian Immigrants to the United States: A Biographical Directory. Vol. 1: 1825-1843. Decorah, Iowa: Amundsen Publishing Company, 1993.