Stephen A. Swails House

Stephen A. Swails House is a South Carolina historical marker in Kingstree, Williamsburg County, dedicated 1998.

Williamsburg County · dedicated 1998 · Corner of Main St. (S.C. Hwy. 261) and E. Brooks St., across from the Williamsburg Funeral Home, Kingstree, Kingstree

Get directions ↗Start a road trip Historical trails

Front: Stephen Atkins Swails (1832-1900), U.S. Army officer and state senator, lived in a house on this site 1868-79. Swails, a free black from Pennsylvania, came to S.C. in 1863 as a 1st sgt. in the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers (Colored), the first black regiment organized in the North during the Civil War. He was wounded twice and was commissioned 2nd lt. by Massachusetts Governor John Andrew in early 1864. Reverse: Swails, one of only about 100 black officers during the Civil War, was promoted to 1st lt. in 1865. Afterwards he was an agent for the Freedmen's Bureau and practiced law in Kingstree. He was a state senator 1868-78 and served three terms as president pro tem. Swails was also intendant of Kingstree 1873-77 and edited the Williamsburg Republican. He is buried in the Friendly Society Cemetery in Charleston.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Example

under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

From one family's 77-marker roster

Upload your family tree and TreeAlive finds the markers near where your own ancestors lived.

See your family's markers

Start with a tree file, a FamilySearch sign in, or a WikiTree ID.

Report a problem with this page

The marker isn't at this spotOur pin may be off. If you know where it stands, tell us.I couldn't find the markerWe record what the source recorded. We have not been to look.The sign reads differentlyThat would be an error, and we can pass it to the program.The historical map looks wrongThe period map behind the pin, not the marker itself.Something else

We may pass what you report to the state's marker program. Please don't include personal details.

Marker data: South Carolina Historical Marker Program, SC Department of Archives and History
Sponsored by Williamsburgh Historical Society

More markers nearby

St. Alban's Episcopal Churchunder 1 mi
Tomlinson Schoolunder 1 mi
"Let Us March on Ballot Boxes"under 1 mi
Old Muster Ground and Courthouseunder 1 mi