Charles A. Swan

Charles Alexander Swan was born on May 29, 1838, in Greene County, Pennsylvania. He later became closely associated with Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the community from which he entered military service during the American Civil War. When he joined the Union cause, Swan became a soldier of the United States Army, serving in Company K, 4th Iowa Cavalry. His Medal of Honor action would occur while he still held the rank of Private, although his later service brought advancement into the noncommissioned officer ranks. U.S. Army The 4th Iowa Cavalry was a veteran mounted regiment that served extensively in the western theater of the Civil War. By the time Swan entered its ranks, the regiment had already accumulated years of campaigning, but the final phase of the war would bring it into some of its most aggressive operations. Swan's service placed him in a cavalry organization expected to conduct reconnaissance, raids, pursuit, mounted attacks, and direct combat against Confederate forces. Swan's wartime experience included personal danger well before the action that earned him the Medal of Honor. During the fighting associated with Brice's Cross Roads, Mississippi, on June 10, 1864, the regimental record lists Private Charles A. Swan of Company K among the men captured by Confederate forces. The same engagement was costly for the regiment, producing killed, wounded, and captured soldiers across several companies. Swan survived his captivity and returned to military service, continuing with the regiment into the final campaigns of the war. LDS Genealogy By early 1865, the 4th Iowa Cavalry was serving in the great mounted campaign through Alabama and Georgia under Union cavalry forces commanded by Major General James H. Wilson. The purpose of this campaign was to destroy Confederate military infrastructure and eliminate remaining organized resistance in the Deep South. One of its principal objectives was Selma, Alabama, an important Confederate manufacturing and military center protected by defensive works. On April 2, 1865, Union cavalry attacked Selma. The assault developed into fierce close-range fighting as Federal troops broke through Confederate defenses. Swan, still officially a Private in Company K, took part in this action. During the battle he performed the deed that would permanently distinguish his military career: he captured a Confederate flag and its bearer. The official Army citation identifies the flag as believed to have belonged to the 11th Mississippi. U.S. Army Capturing an enemy standard in Civil War combat carried major military significance. Regimental and unit flags were central rallying points on the battlefield, used to maintain formation and identify units amid smoke, noise, and confusion. They were also powerful symbols of unit identity and honor. Reaching an opposing color bearer during active fighting therefore normally required a soldier to penetrate directly into a dangerous part of the enemy position. Swan's capture of both the standard and its bearer at Selma became the official basis for his Medal of Honor. Swan was formally awarded the Medal of Honor on June 17, 1865, only a little more than two months after the Battle of Selma. The United States Army's official citation records him as Private, Company K, 4th Iowa Cavalry, with the action taking place at Selma on April 2, 1865. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society likewise confirms that the award was not posthumous and records the same presentation date. U.S. Army For the historical ribbon system used in this profile, his decoration is therefore represented by the Medal of Honor 1862–1895 Army. The ribbon should be displayed without a V device. Swan's Medal of Honor already represents valor in combat; adding a separate V device would incorrectly alter the historical award representation. His Medal of Honor action did not mark the end of his military advancement. Regimental records show that Swan subsequently rose from the enlisted rank he held during the Selma action into the sergeant grades before leaving military service. For the database, this distinction is important: Private remains his Medal of Honor action rank, while Sergeant, specifically Fifth Sergeant, represents the highest verified rank established in the project research. This preserves the difference between the rank under which his heroic action was officially recorded and the higher rank he later attained. The Civil War Campaign Medal shown in his ribbon rack represents another aspect of Swan's military record. Unlike his Medal of Honor, which recognized one specific act of extraordinary battlefield conduct, the Civil War Campaign Medal represents qualifying United States Army service during the Civil War. Swan's documented Army service with the 4th Iowa Cavalry in 1864–1865 falls within the qualifying Civil War service period. The campaign medal itself was created decades after the conflict, so it should be understood as recognition of his qualifying wartime service rather than as a decoration he was presented with during the war itself. The combination of these two decorations therefore tells two different parts of Swan's story. The Civil War Campaign Medal represents his broader service as a Union cavalryman—including campaigning, capture by Confederate forces, return to duty, and continued participation in the closing operations of the war. The Medal of Honor represents the defining moment of that service: his capture of an enemy flag and its bearer at Selma. Following the collapse of Confederate resistance in the spring of 1865, the 4th Iowa Cavalry continued its duties for a short time before its wartime service concluded. Swan returned to civilian life after a military career that had taken him from ordinary enlisted service through captivity and battle to national recognition for valor. In later life, Swan remained associated with Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the community connected with both his enlistment and his postwar years. He was eventually buried in Forest Home Cemetery in Mount Pleasant, where his grave preserves the memory of one of Iowa's Civil War Medal of Honor recipients. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society specifically records his burial there. Congressional Medal of Honor Society Charles Alexander Swan's military legacy rests on more than the brief wording of his official citation. He entered the Army as an enlisted cavalryman, endured capture during the difficult Mississippi campaigning of 1864, returned to active service, and continued fighting until the final weeks of the Civil War. At Selma on April 2, 1865, he confronted an enemy color bearer and captured both the man and the Confederate standard. That action brought him the nation's highest military decoration and secured his place among the Medal of Honor recipients of the American Civil War.