(From History of the City of Toledo by Clark Waggoner)
The first local organization ofthe Grand Army [of the Republic] established in this section of Ohio, was Forsyth Post, which was instituted November 19, 1866. For this purpose a number of resident ex-Soldiers met at the office of Colonel John A. Chase, at which Captain Henry E. Howe, yet a resident of Toledo, presented the nature and advantages of such an organization, and the Post was instituted. It took its distinctive name from George Duncan Forsyth, a son of Mrs. Charlotte T. Forsyth, still a resident of Toledo, and a brother of General James A. Forsyth ofthe United States Army. Lieutenant Forsyth first enlisted as a private in the 14th O. V. I. April 19, 1861, three days after the first call for troops was issued. At the close of three months’ service he returned to Napoleon, Ohio, where he engaged in business; but when the call for three years’ troops came he again responded. He enlisted at Napoleon in the 100th O. V. I. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in Company B of that Regiment July 11, 1862, and promoted to First Lieutenant January 8, 1863. He was captured at Limestone Station, Tennessee, September 8, 1863, and taken to Libby Prison, where he remained until his death at the hands of one ofthe prison guards, April 13, 1864. Whether or not the shooting was accidental, will probably never be definitely known, although the preponderance ofproof favors the belief that he was not intentionally killed. Lieutenant Forsyth was violating no order of the prison at the time of his death. His remains were brought home and now lie buried in the family lot in Forest Cemetery, Toledo. He was a graduate of the Toledo High School.
The Forsyth Post had members from the Colton area, Washington Township, Henry County: Ed Matthews, Rev. Poling, Mr. Earheart, Jim Slater, Thomas Barlow, J. Bechstein, Mr. Schultz, Bill Jackson, Bill Hyter, Frank Weirich, Sam Overmire, Peter Greiner, Mr. Shatzer, Simon Wagoner, and at least two others whose names are unknown.
