e is Hans
Eustrom, better known in Minnesota as Captain Eustrom.

The first Danish-German war broke out about this time, and I, with many
other youths, felt a hearty sympathy for the Danes. The Swedish
government resolved to send troops to help their neighbors, and a few
regiments marching through our city fanned our youthful enthusiasm into
flame. Finally, a detachment of the artillery, quartered in the city,
was ordered to leave for the seat of war, and now I could no longer
restrain myself, but besieged my parents to let me join that part of the
army which was going to the battlefield, and to clinch the argument I
was cruel enough to send word to my distressed mother that if she would
not consent I would run away from home and join the army anyway. This
last argument made her yield, and in the fall of 1849 I became an
artillery cadet, being then in my seventeenth year. But although I won
this victory over my mother, whose greatest desire was that I should
become a clergyman, she in turn gained a victory over me by persuading
the surgeon of the batallion, who was also our family physician, to
declare me sick and send me to the hospital, although I had only a
slight cold; thus my plan to go with the army to Schleswig-Holstein was
frustrated. This did not make much difference, however, as the war was
virtually closed before our troops arrived at the place of destination,
and my time could now be more profitably employed in learning the duties
of a soldier, and in taking a course of mathematics and other practical
branches at the regimental school.

I remained in the army a year and a-half, during which time I received
excellent instruction in gymnastics, fencing and riding, besides the
regular military drill. Two winters were thus devoted to conscientious
and thorough work at the military school.

Knowing that the chances for advancement in the Swedish army during
times of peace were at this time very slim for young men not favored
with titles of nobility, and being also tired of the monotonous garrison
life, my friend Eustrom and myself soon resolved to leave the service
and try our luck in a country where inherited names and titles were not
the necessary conditions of success.

At that time America was little known in our part of the country, only a
few persons having emigrated from the whole district. But we knew that
it was a new country, inhabited by a free and independent people, that it
had a liberal governme