Swain, Charles S.

Scrapbook, 1861-1916
Philadelphia, Pa., ca.500 pp.

Background note:

Charles S. Swain was employed as a clerk in Philadelphia during the Civil War, and may have been associated with the Union League of Philadelphia's military committee. His son, Charles S. Swain, Jr., maintained the family affilition with military organizations after the war as a member of the 1st Regiment, Gray Reserves, of the Pennsylvania National Guard in the 1870's, and was a member of Co. E of the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry during the Spanish-American War.

Scope and Contents:

After the war, he compiled a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, magazine illustrations, engravings and ephemera documenting the history of the war, and throughout the following years, he added additional materials on military subjects, including his own service in the National Guard, the Spanish-American War, and the U.S. incursion into Mexico in 1916. Many of the clippings relate to regiments raised in Philadelphia (including the 1st Reserves, the Corn Exchange (118th) Regiment, and the 215th Infantry), to major events in the war (e.g., the death of Ephraim Ellsworth, Gettysburg, the Lincoln assination), to important military figures, and, post-war, to veterans' affairs. The material he compiled on Lincoln's assassination, funeral procession, and the trial and execution of the conspirators is particularly interesting.

During the Spanish-American War, Swain collected a hodge podge of pictorial material, including published illustrations of ships, soldiers and locations in Cuba, plus some ephemera from a veterans' organization for the 1st Pennsylvania Infantry. While not a complete history of either war by any means, Swain's scrapbook provides some interesting insight into the information available to one, very interested person during the war.

M-2947.39
Cat. 10/93 rsc

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