Diensberg

 was, according to Will Johnson, a "small Massachusetts town". It was the place to which he ostensibly returned after having gone to West Point and then immediate service in the American Civil War. After the war, he ostensibly returned there to marry Claire Bartlett — a local schoolteacher — and to take up a job as the manager of the town's steelworks.

Both Johnson and Bartlett's families were also resident in the town.

In a letter dated 16th April 1861, Bartlett reported to Johnson that the town's population contained at least the following men, all of whom had reported for duty in the Union army:
 * George Bartlett, Claire's brother who did not survive the Civil War
 * Eli Jones
 * Adam and Ben Billet, who ran the local feed-store
 * Jude Krebbs
 * Charles Eastwood
 * Roger Miller

The town was served by a newspaper called the Diensberg Chronicle for which Kenneth Smith was known to work in 1865. (PROSE: Blood and Hope)

Behind the scenes
is not a real American location.