«Union Civil War Soldier Reloading» (with permission from the artist Randall Steele) mounted on the background of Walter Schøffthaler's beautiful picture of the Old City Gate "Voldporten" in Fredrikstad (with permission from the photographer).
Union Soldier Hans Grorud was born and lived much of his life right behind these walls in the very picturesque Old Town in Fredrikstad.
Hans Grorud's Muster Cards from the Union Army in 1862.
(Copy of originals from the National Archives USA)
A card of advertisement (dated ca 1850) from Hans Grorud's father Peder Pedersen Grorud's tobacco factory, offering for sale "The best Tobacco under the Sun".
It is striking that in Grorud's advertisement the worker is light-skinned. This is in stark contrast to other contemporary tobacco advertising in Norway where the workers are clearly depicted as being African-American (and in slavery?)
Could this be interpreted such that Peder Grorud, in his tobacco business, would not be associated with slavery? Was it perhaps already in Hans' childhood an abolitionist faith in the Grorud family that would later inspire him to help fight slavery in the United States
(Private object belonging to the family)
Hans Grorud's Prisoner of War Record Memorandum after the battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.
(Copy of original from the National Archives USA)
One of the three different Service documents from 1865 for Hans Grorud.
(Private object belonging to the family)
Studio photograph of Hans Grorud. Given the revenue stamp on the back of the picture, it is quite certainly taken some time between 1st Aug. 1864 and 1st Aug 1866 from his period in Nashville. (ref. information in Errata)
(Private photograph belonging to the family)
Family photo from around 1907. From left in the picture: Oliver, Marie, Einar, Signe, Dagmar, Hans and Bjarne
(Private photograph belonging to the family)
In 1907 Hans Grorud received the GAR Medal. He bore this proudly in several later photographs.
(The objects belonging to the family)
Photo taken in front of the Lincoln Monument in Frognerparken in Oslo, dated July (4th?) 1930.
Hans (86 years) to the left with the medal of honor from GAR. The photo was taken just under a year before his death. (The identity of person to the right is not known, but the medal will identify him as a veteran from the Spanish-American war in 1908)
(Private photograph belonging to the family)