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Civil War Soldiers - Swayne
| Swayne, Wager, major-general, U.S.
Army, was born in Columbus, Ohio, Nov. 10, 1834, son of Noah H. Swayne,
late associate justice of the U. S. supreme court. He was educated at
Yale college, graduating in 1856, and then entered the Cincinnati law
school, in which he was graduated in 1859. He formed a law partnership
with his father and practiced two years, or until the Civil war broke
out, when he offered his services to the government and in July, 1861,
was appointed major of the 43d Ohio infantry. He was first stationed
at Camp Chase, near Columbus, then took part in the Missouri campaign
under Pope in 1861-62, assisted in the capture of New Madrid and
Island No. 10, and was engaged in the battles of Corinth and Iuka.
During the Corinth engagement the colonel of the 43d Ohio was killed,
the command devolving upon Maj. Swayne, who was subsequently
commissioned as colonel. He continued with his regiment until the fall
of 1863, in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama, and in 1864
accompanied Sherman to Atlanta and on his march to the sea. During the
campaign of the Carolinas Col. Swayne lost his right leg by the
explosion of a shell in an affair at the crossing of the Salkahatchie
river, and "for gallant and distinguished services" in that action was
commissioned brevet brigadier-general, and later was promoted to the
full rank of brigadier-general of volunteers. Gen. Swayne was
invalided until June, 1865, when at the request of Gen. O. O. Howard,
chief of the Freedmen's bureau, he was detailed by the war department
to duty in Alabama as assistant commissioner of the bureau in that
state. He instituted various enterprises for the education of the
blacks and to provide them with sustenance and the opportunity to
become self-supporting. Through Sec. Stanton he secured from President
Johnson an order devoting certain confiscated war materials to the
education of the freedmen and subsequently, through Senator, afterward
Vice-President Henry Wilson, an act of Congress devoting to the same
cause such real property as had been purchased from individuals by the
Federal government, becoming by the rules of international law the
property of the United States. But his policy was radically different
from that which President Johnson eventually adopted, and accordingly
Gen. Swayne was recalled from Alabama in 1868. The command of the
United States forces in Alabama had meantime, soon after he came into
the state, been added to his duties, and to facilitate his work he was
made a major-general of volunteers. In 1866 Congress increased the
regular army of the United States by the creation of four regiments of
infantry composed of disabled volunteer soldiers, known as "the
veteran reserve corps." Gens. Daniel E. Sickles, John C. Robinson,
Thomas G. Pitcher and Wager Swayne were respectively appointed to the
command of these regiments. In Dec, 1868, Gen. Swayne was assigned to
duty in the war department at Washington, but in 1870 was placed on
the retired list of the army at his own request and resumed the
practice of law, locating at Toledo, Ohio. Almost immediately he took
rank among the foremost lawyers of Ohio. He fought through the lower
courts and finally through the supreme court of the United States, the
constitutionality of a state law which was designed to tax national
banks out of existence, and secured a final decision in the negative.
Gen. Swayne soon had among his clients such concerns as the American
Union telegraph company and the Wabash railroad company, and in 1879
the growth of his railroad and telegraph business made it necessary
for him to remove to New York city, where his clients were. In May,
1881, he entered into partnership with Judge John F. Dillon and the
firm soon became general counsel for the Western Union telegraph
company, the Missouri Pacific railroad company, and other great
commercial and railway interests. Gen. Swayne was the second president
of the Ohio society of New York. He died Dec. 18, 1902. Source: The Union Army: A History of Military Affairs in the Loyal
States 1861-1865, Volume 8 Biographical, 1908
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