Stephen Atkins Swails
| Stephen A. Swails | |
|---|---|
1st LT. Stephen Swails, 1864
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| Born |
February 23, 1832 Columbia, Pennsylvania |
| Died | May 17, 1900 (aged 68) Kingstree, South Carolina |
| Place of burial | Charleston, South Carolina |
| Allegiance |
 United States of America
|
| Years of service | 1863–1865 |
| Rank |
 First Lieutenant, United States Volunteers
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| Battles/wars | |
Stephen Atkins Swails (23 February 1832 – 17 May 1900) was a soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Although originally enlisting as a private, he was the first African-American soldier promoted to commissioned rank, as a line officer, in that conflict, as evidenced by the U.S. War Department's initial refusal of that promotion due to his "African descent."
Swails was a free black who was so light in coloring that he was often mistaken as white. He was single and employed mostly as a waiter in Cooperstown, New York, at the start of the Civil War, and although he fathered several children by Sarah Thompson, they never married. His enlistment papers state he was employed as a boatman in Elmira, New York when he joined the army. In 1863, he answered Frederick Douglass' call to arms and joined the 54th Massachusetts when it began forming, and served in that regiment, eventually being commissioned as an officer, until the end of the war. After the war, he settled in South Carolina and later Washington, D.C., becoming a lawyer and politician.
Stephen Swails was a member of the 54th Massachusetts, enlisting and then rising through the ranks to receive a commission. He joined Company F of the 54th on 23 April 1863 and was soon appointed the company's first sergeant. Due to the loss of men in the assault on Fort Wagner, and when Colonel Edward Hallowell assumed command of the 54th, Swails was appointed acting sergeant-major of the 54th on 12 November 1863.
In early 1864, the regiment was posted to Florida as part of General Truman Seymour's expedition. On 20 February, while still performing duty as the regiment's sergeant-major, Swails was wounded in the head at the Battle of Olustee. Setting out toward the Union supply point at Sanderson, he soon fell unconscious on the road, but was placed on a cart by one of the 54th's officers. On 26 February 1864, Colonel Hallowell,
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