One of the main purposes of my webpage about the Swedish born soldiers in the Great War is to serve as an information platform about the individuals and their stories, about how they went from their homeland to end up serving in different nations.
Mainly I describe the fate of those soldiers who fell, but also about those who emigrated and served, to later return to Sweden after their time across the Atlantic ocean, in both the USA, and Canada.
The information on my page often lead to relatives to the soldiers who served contacting me to share information or ask about more details about their relatives fate on the battlefields. I gladly help them and very often the information leads me trying to read more about the situations which enrich my knowledge.
In this case I was contacted by a person from Vetlanda in Sweden who told me about his relative who joined the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the Great War and survived but also found out that another relative to the family fought for the American Expeditionary Force but sadly fell on the Battlefield.
This is the story about those two men.
Edwin Peir Vicktor Carlson was born on March 12, 1894 as Peter Edvin Viktor Karlsson in Alseda parish east of the town of Vetlanda in Jönköping county, in the landscape of Småland. Even if the name Peter is mentioned in the book of birth, he is noted as Per in the Church books, who can explain the name Peir which is noted in the Canadian documents.
He is also noted to have been born March 14th, in the Swedish church books, which made it a bit hard to find more information in the beginning.
The descendant to Edvin told me that Edvin was the brother to his great-great grandfather on his mother’s side.
Edvin was raised by his mother Maria Carolina Gustafsdotter and his father Carl August Jonsson, together with his siblings. See the very nice photo above in front of their house, probably on the farm of Godanstorp, east of Alseda.
Edvin emigrated to North America in mid September 1912, and arrived in New York in late September, 1912 He noted Moline, Illinois, as his final destination, and the contact person in the States, Jenny, was his sister, Jenny Martina, who emigrated to North America already in 1909.
In the amazingly detailed family story we can read:
“When Edvin was 18 years old, he saw no other way to make a living than to seek a place in the great country of western America. He and a brother set off on foot towards Gothenburg and took a boat over to England where they booked themselves on the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympia, which departed from Southampton on September 18, 1912. In America, he worked in various capacities, such as as a farm worker and carpenter in the state of Iowa. Edvin became an American citizen, which meant that when the United States entered World War I, he was registered as a soldier in the United States and was drafted. Edvin then wanted to go to his homeland, Sweden. He sold his horse Roudy for $30.00 dollars on October 15, 1917.
He lies down under a railway carriage destined for Canada. He is lucky and enters Canada after a difficult journey of about 20 hours. He stops at a diner to eat. During his time in America he has become so Americanized that he eats in the American way, i.e. shares food with a knife and then eats only with a fork. Edvin is recognized by the civilian police as being an American citizen. He is sent back to the USA and put before a court martial with the death penalty as a result. He chooses to join the Canadian army and is sent to England for military training and then to France.”
In his American Draft documents he stated that he had no claims for not doing his service, but we know from the story above that he didn’t want to go to war. Below his draft document, as Edwin Carlson from the farm of Godanstorp.
In his registration papers to the Canadian Army he stated that is home address was Stockholm Hotel in Chicago, Illinois.
He signed the Canadian attestation papers on February 6th, 1918, and he went over to France in May 1918. He left Halifax on May 15th and arrived England on May 27th, 1918. He was later on attached to the 19th canadian Infantry Battalion when he arrived in the French battlefields in early September 1918.
When I look into my database of the fallen Swedes, none of those fought for the 19th Canadian Infantry battalion, however, I am quite sure there were other soldiers with Swedish connections in the battalion.
He probably participated in the “100 days offensive” which went on from August 1918 to the armistice in november 1918.
Edvin could have been in the advance from Cambrai along the road to Naves, north-east of Cambrai, towards north-east between late September to mid October, 1918, and may have participated towards the area of Mons when the armistice occured in November 11, 1918.
From the family story we can further on read:
“Their combined efforts earned them a respectable reputation for professionalism, steadfastness and reliability. The battalion made a full contribution to the Allied victory. He saw comrades fall dead and wounded beside him and in their dying moments wailed and called out their mothers’ names or cursed, it was a real hell. He was called “the Swede” and was popular with both commanders and comrades. The only injury he himself suffered was that he was poisoned by mustard gas, which was noticeable for as long as he lived, namely watery eyes. On one occasion, the brim of his steel helmet had been pierced by three machine gun bullets during an advance without him noticing anything. He protected a school class with his machine gun and received medals for that action.“
Edvin survived the war and left France for England in April 1919, and went back to Canada.
He went back to Sweden and I have found a note in the Swedish church book that he is back around 1921-1922, and it is also noted that he was a soldier in the Canadian Army. It looks like he did his Swedish conscript service in 1922, when back from his time in the war. Below there is a picture from his conscript card from the 12th Infantry regiment in Eksjö, Småland.
It is great to see the medals on his chest. Edvin died February 5th, 1982.
The second relative
The person who contacted me from Vetlanda was looking through my webpage and found another soldier who was born in the same region, in this case in the village of Nye. You can find Nye on the map above in this article.
He wasn’t sure if this person was a relative to them as well, but it turned up that he was. The soldier in this case was the soldier in the American Expeditionary Forces, who fought for the 7th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Division, Gunnard E Carlson.
Gunnard E Carlson was born in Nye parish on January 1st, 1896, as Edvard Gunnar Karlsson. he was raised by his mother Anna Matilda Johansdotter and his father Karl Anders Karlsson, together with seven siblings.
The family emigrated to North America on March 27th, 1904, and they settled in Jamestown, New York. The family was later on gifted with one more sibling to Gunnar, when the daughter Laura was born in New York.
Gunnar was added with a “d” to his name and seems to have kept that when he was drafted on June 5th, 1918. He was then a mechanic. He also stated that he was from “Smolland” which is the landscape of Småland in this case.
Gunnard was on the steamer “America” when they left for France in April 1918. On May 27th, 1918, the Germans began their offensive between the Aisne and the Marne in France, and the 3rd US Division, in which Gunnard was fighting, was placed at the disposal of the French.
In June the entire Division went into the line in the Chateau-Thierry sector, it operated under the 38th French Army Corps, it took an active part in the Aisne Defensive June 1st to June 5th.
On June the 15th, the 7th Infantry Regiment was detached and placed at the disposal of the 2nd Division in Belleau Woods where it relieved the 5th and the 6th Marines. It was withdrawn from the line on the night of June 23-24th and rejoined the Division. Gunnard was probably part of the fightings in the Belleau Woods, although he was fighting in Company E, which was placed more to the eastern part of the woods.
It is not so common to read about the other units who were involved in the fightings in the Belleau Wood, we are more used to hear about the American Marines when it comes to the fightings in that area.
There is a story to read more about the 7th Infantry Regiment and their fighting through this link, which I received from my contact.
In the Champagne-Marne Defensive between July 15th to 18th, holding the south bank of the Marne River for twelve kilometers east from Chateau-Thierry, the division earned for itself the highest commendation for gallantry in an action which marked the turning point of the war. Its entire front was subjected to an intense artillery bombardment.
It may have been during these fights on the Champagne-Marne Front that Gunnard was killed in action, as he died on July 15th, 1918.
I can read in the American National Archive that there were not witnesses to the death of Gunnard. he was buried in the woods just east of the small village of Blesmes, east from the larger town of Chateau-Thierry in France. He was kept in the Morgue at the American cemetery of Aisne Marne, and was later buried in the cemetery.
If I read further on in the archive files I can also see that Gunnard is not survived by a wife or a mother, and there is no wish from any mother to do the Pilgrimage trip to france. I don’t have further details about Gunnard’s family, to know the reason for the document below.
Although, I have visited Gunnar Edvard Karlsson a couple of times, where he is buried today at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, and I also mentioned him on my tour as a guide in the area in May 2025.
I have learned a lot more about the fates of those two soldiers and I am very happy for Jacob Wilhelmsson, who contacted me, and gave me the information that he was related to these two soldiers from Vetlanda.
I have also other soldiers in my research who are born around the town of Vetlanda, and I will tell more about them later on.
There were 94 soldiers in my research who emigrated from the Landscape of Småland, participated in the Great War and died. That is the highest amount of soldiers compared to the other landscapes in Sweden. Although, there were a lot more who survived, and some of them went back to Sweden. May they all rest in peace.