Born in
Augusta, Georgia, he attended the
University of Georgia at
Athens where he was a member of the
Phi Kappa Literary Society. Forsyth graduated from Princeton in 1832. In 1834, Forsyth married Margaret Hull, the daughter of Latham Hull of Augusta, GA. Their son Charles, born in Mobile, Alabama, would go on to serve as a colonel in the Confederate Army. Forsyth was for many years one of the foremost
Democratic Party editors of the south. He was Adjutant of the First Georgia Regiment in the
Mexican War. In 1856 he was appointed Minister to
Mexico, but in 1858 demanded his passports and withdrew from the legation. He went on to become the Mayor of Mobile, Alabama in 1860. By 1863, he served as Chief of Staff in the Confederate Army of Tennessee. On July 17, 1857, he attempted to negotiate a US purchase of Mexican territory including the whole of
Baja California, as well as parts of Northern
Sonora and
Chihuahua up to the
Yaqui River at the
Gulf of California coast and then to the 30th parallel north. In 1861, with
Martin J. Crawford of Georgia, he represented the
Confederate States as commissioner to the National government, but his request for an unofficial interview with
William Henry Seward was declined. He left for
Mobile, Alabama after the
Civil War and engaged in journalistic work until health problems compelled him to retire. He died in Mobile on May 2, 1877. The
Mobile Register of May 5, 1877 (its columns draped in black) printed a lengthy obituary: "a large congregation of Mobile citizens were assembled to testify by their presence, their love and respect for the honored dead." A funeral cortege traveled to
Magnolia Cemetery where the final interment took place. ==References==