LA 6th Inf Co I. CSA. Residence: Chicago, Illinois. Born Edvard Gundersen Ostmo on 29 Dec 1837 in Solor, Norway. To US 1859 to Wisconsin. Worked in lumber camps until the spring of 1860. Started for Pike’s Peak to search for gold. At Hannibal, Missouri, he met miners returning from Colorado who were broke and starving. Gunderson went to St. Louis and worked at odd jobs for a few weeks and then took passage on a boat to New Orleans, where he worked as a laborer. Civil War: Drafted. Enrolled at New Orleans on 21 Mar 1862. He was then 25 and unmarried, with blue eyes, auburn hair and a florid complexion, 5’9”. Private. Sent to join the LA 6th Inf. The Regiment was already in Virginia. He was captured by Union troops at Fredericksburg, Virginia, 3 May 1863 and sent to Fort Delaware, Delaware. Exchanged 23 May 1863 at City Point, Virginia. He was wounded at Gettysburg on 2 Jul 1863. Escaped capture and was with his company through April 1864. Captured at the Battle of the Wilderness, Pine Run, Virginia, on 5 May 1864 and sent to Point Lookout prison, Maryland; then transferred to Elmira, New York, until the war ended and he was released on 19 Jun 1865. Post war: He married in 1873 to Olivia Kalgaarden. Seven children. He moved to Kensett, Worth County, Iowa, and died there on 27 Jan 1924. He is buried at Elk Creek cemetery west of Kensett. Sources: (“Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers” by James P Gannon, publ. 1998) (Ulvestad p285) (www.borgerkrigen.info) (Obituary, “The Northwood Anchor”) (Walk) “Gundersen, Edvard”
