August Forsberg, who wrote the attached manuscript, was born in Stockholm, Sweden, January 13, 1831. He was a graduate of the Royal Academy in Stockholm and was serving as a lieutenant in the engineering corps of the Swedish army in 1852 when his physician recommended an ocean voyage for his health. A Swedish architect who was supervising the construction of the U. S. Government building at Columbia South Carolina had written to the Royal Academy asking them to recommend a young man to act as his assistant. The position was tendered to Lieutenant Forsberg and he, having secured a furlough from the Swedish Army, sailed for America and never returned to his native land. He later established an office as architect in Baltimore, Maryland and also worked for the U. S. Government in Washington D. C. as a topographical draftsman. After the was he settled in Lynchburg Virginia where he served as City Engineer for many years. He died in July, 1910.

(Ludwig) August Forsberg was born in Orebro, Sweden (near Stockholm) on January 139 1831, the third son of Fredrik Wilhelm and Karin Lind Forsberg.
There were six sons and three daughters and August and his youngest brother, Reinald, were the only ones to marry. He graduated from Fort Waxholm (Sweden's West Point) in architecture and bridge building. He came to America in 1853 (my understanding is that a sea voyage had been recommended for his health) and spent several years in Washington and Baltimore. He dropped the Ludwig from his name at this time. He met his future wife, Mary Elizabeth Morgan Otey (widow of Capt. Gaston Otey, who had been killed in the first year of the war, and they had two daughters) at the Ladies Relief Hospital in Lynchburg. They were married August 31, 1865, in Court Street Methodist Church. She referred to herself as Mollie E. Forsberg and called her husband, Auguste. Three of their eight children died in infancy. Their sons were named for three of August's brothers. Carl's and Rudolf's middle names were from the English descent of the Morgans. The above information was given me by Aunt Hilda (Hilda F. Davis) and the manuscript of Grandfather Forsberg's account of the war years must have come from Auntie (Annie Lind Forsberg) to my father (Rudolf). None of our family had ever seen it. The penmanship is beautiful and it must be remembered that with the injury to his right hand he had the use of only his thumb and forefinger--- the remaining three fingers were tightly closed.

The writing is on both sides of thin paper, numbers 86 pages and is extremely legible. The pages are held together with two strings through holes jabbed through the paper. Whether this history was ever read to a group of his fel-low Virginians I do not know, nor exactly when after the war he wrote the record from his diaries. To the best of my ability I have been faithful in using his spelling, punctuation, capitalization and the names of places. Many locations I have found on maps, some places in West Virginia are no longer so named according to the lady in the archives department in Charleston, and many of the generals I have checked in a library book. Some of us may want to search further for the locations and do lot me know of errors you can rectify. In checking his date of birth I realize he was born exactly 150 years ago. Having never had the privilege of knowing him but always hearing my father speak of him with the greatest respect and affection, it has indeed been a labor of love to transcribe his work and have the character of the man come through to me. A copy is being sent to each of his living grandchildren and great grandchildren as follows: The children of August and Mollie E. Forsberg were: Carl Stuart (1868). Rudolf Percy (1870), Annie Lind (1872), Fredrik August (1877) and Hilda Ludwika (1880).

--Information given by his granddaughter, Margaret F. Hodgdon.