Ernst von Vegesack

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ernst Mathias Peter von Vegesack (June 18, 1820 – January 12, 1903) was a Swedish Army officer who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and later became a member of the Swedish Parliament. Born on Gotland, he trained as a land surveyor and held various military and civil roles in Sweden before going to the United States in 1861 to fight for the Union.

In the American Civil War he rose from captain of the 58th Ohio Infantry to major on the staff of General Wool. He fought at Fort Monroe, Newport News, Yorktown, and in several major battles including Hanover Court House, Seven Pines, Fair Oaks, Mechanicsville, Gaines’s Mill, Savage’s Station, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. He was named colonel of the 20th New York Infantry (the German Turners) and commanded a brigade in the 6th Army Corps. He resigned from the Union Army on June 1, 1863.

For his service, he was later nominated and confirmed as a brevet brigadier general of volunteers, with the rank backdated to March 13, 1865. He was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor in 1893 for bravery at Gaines’s Mill, where he, while serving as an aide-de-camp, charged a position under fire.

Returning to Sweden, Vegesack was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1864 and commanded the Västerbotten Field Jäger Corps. He became colonel of the Hälsinge Regiment in 1868, and from 1874 to 1884 he was military commander of Gotland and led its national conscription (acting in 1873). In 1884 he rose to major general and served as commander of Sweden’s 5th Military District, retiring from the military in 1888. He also served in the Swedish Parliament’s upper house representing Gotland from 1878 to 1887.

In 1865 he married Edla Amalia Sergel. Ernst von Vegesack died in Stockholm in 1903 and was buried at Norra begravningsplatsen.

Medal of Honor citation (summary): While serving as an aide-de-camp, he voluntarily and effectively charged the position of troops under fire at Gaines’s Mill, Virginia, on June 27, 1862.