The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1904-05-13
Neis Andersen of North Mankato
Fought Germans in 1864.
Relates Many Interesting Experiences
of That Great Struggle.
Soldiers Suffered Many Hardships in
Order to Defend Country.
He Enjoyed Exciting Life and Was
Never Sick a Day.

From Mondays Daily.
Nels Andersen of Charles street, North
Mankato, is a veteran of the war be-
tween the Danes and Germans in the
year 1864. He was young Danish sol
der of twenty-six years of age then
and at the outbreak of the war in the
early winter of 1868 he had already been
in the Danish military service foul
years. He had been one of the excep-
tionally well drilled privates, who were
chosen to attend the command school
and had been gradually elevated until
he had the rank of sergeant.
MIR. Andersen remembers well the in
| tense enthusiasm with which the Danes
determined to defend their sovereignty
over the provinces of Schleswig and
Holstein. Each and every soldier seemed
to be inspired with the national spirit
But the superior numbers and more
modern guns of the Austrians and Prus-
slams inevitably won in the unequal
struggle.
The Danes were usually on the defen-
sive. The war was a gradual retreat on
the one hand before the advance of
stronger forces on the other. The
Danes were always careful to lose as
few men as possible, even with the neces-
sity of giving up territory. In one of
the retreating stands that a Danish
force made at lake in Schleswig, by the
name of Obersee, the sergeant was shot
in the shin bone of the left leg. The
bone was simply splintered on the side
and the limb was not disabled. Mr.. An
dersen describes the sensation he felt
as that of being stung by an insect. He
did not realize that he had been wound
ed until he felt the blood running down
into his boot. Even then he did not
cease fighting and directing. He did not
allow the wound to interfere in the
least with his duties, either during the
battle or Afterwards, but simply bandag-
ed it up for the time being, and when he
had leisure, poulticed the injury with
tobacco. Splinters of the bone came out
of the limb months afterwards.
This was the only time the sergeant
was ever wounded in battle, though he
was engaged in seven big fights, and of
ten had his clothes pierced with bullets.
Once bullet passed between his left
arm and left side, cutting in two the
strap wherewith his knapsack was
bound.
Mr.. Andersen says a soldier cannot
as rule tell much about where the real
danger is. Once he was in a ditch with
number of other Danes who had
sought shelter there, when he saw man
few feet from him drop dead, pierced
in some vital spot by an Austrian or
Prussian bullet. The sergeant conclud-
ed that it was foolish to seek shelter in
an uncomfortable place, so he simply
stepped out where there was better
walking.
The Danish soldiers of that day en-
dured hardships of which the modern
American military man has had no ex-
perience. The army had no tents. Ar
rangements were made by the govern
ment with view to giving every man a
nights lodging in house during the
winter time one night out of three. Thus
each man got good nights rest only
every third night. Very often, however,
the plans could not be carried out, and
for weeks at time soldiers would spend
their nights out of doors under the win
try sky.
Mr.. Andersen remembers that for
seven weeks of the winter, while he
was with the division of the army that
was defending the island of Alsen, he
and other Danes slept without the shell
ter of any building for seven continuous
weeks. The men dug bitches, four feet
deep, and gathered seaweed with which
they covered the bottoms. On this dry
seaweed they would lie down when very
tired and sleep. Few of the men could
ever sleep longer than an hour at a time
A man would sleep until he got well
chilled then would wake up and walk
around to quicken the circulation of his
blood, and get his body warm again
After getting warmed up by exercise and
partly by the camp fires, he would lie
down and take another installment of
his nights rest.
The Danes were on the island and the
Austrians and Prussians were on the
main land. The two forces were separ-
ated by strait about three-quarters OF
a mile in width. Across this channel the
invaders kept up more or less con.
tinuous fire, shooting wherever they
could catch sight Of few Danes bunch.
ed together. In order to keep the
Danes from having the advantage of any
buildings, the Austrians and Prussians
threw burning missiles into every farm
house, barn or other building they could