Silas C. Swift
Silas C. Swift was born around 1838 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, to Erastus Swift and Sarah Stevens. His father was a farmer who moved the family to Hartford, New York, around 1846. His mother probably died around 1850, and his father died of bilious pneumonia in Sandisfield, Massachusetts, around November 1859. In 1860, Swift was living in Hartford and working as a farm laborer.
Swift enlisted in the Union army at Fort Edward, New York, on November 6, 1861, and he mustered in as a sergeant in Company E of the 96th New York Infantry on November 19, 1861. According to his enlistment records, he was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with blue eyes and brown hair. He was shot in the leg and discharged for disability in Albany, New York, on October 16, 1862. He returned to Great Barrington and spent the following year working as a clerk.
On January 25, 1864, he enlisted in the Union army again, mustering in as a private in Company D of the 57th Massachusetts Infantry the following day and collecting a $400 bounty. He reportedly fell ill that spring and was absent from his regiment from May 1864 until the end of the war. The army first sent him to Knight General Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, but it transferred him to Dale General Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, by November 1864. Army officials eventually transferred him to the 117th Company, 2nd Veteran Reserve Corps. He mustered out on October 10, 1865.
After the war, Swift moved in with relatives in Bovina, Wisconsin, and resumed work as a farmer. In 1870, he reported owning $800 of real estate. He moved to Lee, Massachusetts, sometime before 1890, and he married Hattie S. Hewitt there in September 19, 1896. They moved to Kingsbury, New York, by 1900, and in the early 1900s, Swift became an agent for a nursery company. He died in Lee, Massachusetts, on December 28, 1915.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (5) | Swift, Silas C. | 1838 | 1915-12-28 |
- Conflict Side: Union
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Corporal
- Rank highest: Sergeant
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 6
- (2217) [writer] ~ Silas C. Swift to Albert D. Swift, 2 November 1862
- (2218) [writer] ~ Silas C. Swift to Albert D. Swift, 14 January 1863
- (2219) [writer] ~ Silas C. Swift to Albert D. Swift, 4 February 1863
- (2220) [writer] ~ Silas C. Swift to Albert D. Swift, 22 October 1863
- (2221) [writer] ~ Silas C. Swift to Albert D. Swift, 2 November 1863
- (2253) [writer] ~ Silas C. Swift to Albert D. Swift, 3 February 1863
People - Records: 1
- (5) Swift, Silas C. is the [sibling of] (6) Swift, Albert D.
Places - Records: 2
Regiments - Records: 2
SOURCES
1840, 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1900, and 1910 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; 1860 United States Federal Census Mortality Schedule, available from Ancestry.com; 1855 New York State Census, available from Ancestry.com; 1890 United States Federal Census Veterans Schedules, available from Ancestry.com; New York Civil War Muster Roll Abstracts, available from Fold3.com; Military Service Record for Silas C. Swift, available from Fold3.com; Massachusetts Town and Vital Records, 1620-1998, available from Ancestry.com.
