Paying long overdue homage to an American hero.

The York Dispatch: Headstone to mark grave of one of the first black Army officers

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- In an unmarked grave in a grassy corner of small cemetery lie the remains of Lt. Stephen Swails, one of the first black commissioned officers in the U.S. Army.

Although almost a forgotten footnote in history, Swails served with the 54th Massachusetts in the black regiment's desperate attack on Confederate Battery Wagner in 1863 -- an attack recalled in the movie "Glory."

Swails, who was born in Columbia, Pa., would survive the Civil War to become a state senator, a lawyer, University of South Carolina trustee and mayor of Kingstree.

And next week, re-enactors portraying members of the 54th Massachusetts will join historians and public officials to dedicate a stone marker at Swails' grave more than a century after his death.

The Oct. 28 ceremony caps a two-day commemoration of Swails' life sponsored by the new African-American Historical Alliance, a group working to increase the awareness of the involvement of blacks in the Civil War and Reconstruction in South Carolina.

"What we are doing in terms of recognizing him is reaching back to a part of our state history that is not often talked about," said Michael Allen of the National Park Service in Charleston.

"The African-Americans that were part of the new South Carolina after the war were very extraordinary folks," he said.

Researchers determined where Swails' grave was in the black cemetery by using old records from the Avery Institute for African-American History at the College of Charleston, said Krista Robertson, a spokeswoman for the alliance.

Across the street is Magnolia Cemetery, which has a section where more than 1,70 0 Confederates are buried. In another section of Magnolia are the remains of crews of the H.L. Hunley, the Confederate submarine which was the first in history to sink an enemy warship.

Swails was born in 1832, the son of a black father and white mother. By 1860, he was working at a hotel in Cooperstown, N.Y., and he married.

In 1863, he enlisted in the 54th Massachusetts and became a first sergeant. He survived the attack on Wagner but in February 1864 was wounded at the Battle of Olustee in northern Florida where the 54th Massachusetts also fought.

Swails was then promoted to second lieutenant by Massachusetts' governor John Andrews although the Army did not recognize the promotion until the following year.

After the war, Swails was employed for the Freedman's Bureau in Charleston and worked in Kingstree.

He also married a woman from the Charleston area and had four children. It's not known what happened to his first wife, said Billy Jenkinson, a Kingstree attorney who has extensively studied Swails' life.

Swails was a delegate to the South Carolina constitutional convention and became a state senator. He also served as a delegate to three Republican national conventions and was one of the first blacks elected to the Electoral College.

But when whites came back into power at the end of Reconstruction, Swails resigned from the Senate.

"He was politically active in Williamsburg County and was told to leave under the threat of death," Jenkinson said.

As whites took back power Swails simply "was black and he didn't belong," Jenkinson said. "He was never accused through all of Reconstruction of doing anything wrong."

Later, Swails worked in Washington for the Postal Service and Treasury Department. He took ill in 1899 and returned home to Kingstree where he died the next year.

He was probably buried in Charleston because that's where his wife's family's burial plot was, Jenkinson said.

"Turn-of-the-century Charleston was not a prosperous place. A lot of cemeteries used wooden headstones," said Jenkinson, adding it was unlikely there was ever a stone marking Swails' grave.

"By this time next week there will be," he said.

On the Web: African American Historical Alliance: www.aahasc.org.