Description
Very nice bust portrait identified as Lieutenant Colonel Francis Swanwick of the 22nd Illinois Infantry. Francis would be commissioned a captain with “H” Company in June of 1861. In February of the following year, he would be promoted to major and before year’s end, to lieutenant colonel. In December of that year, the regiment would be heavily engaged during the Battle of Stones River. The regiment would lose over half of the men who went into the fray, including Swanwick. Wounded in the arm and captured, he would be sent to Atlanta and Richmond until May, 1863. He would return in time for the Battle of Chickamauga which was fought in September. The regiment would remain in the vicinity of east Tennessee until joining Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign in March, 1864. They would fight their way through the summer, 1864 campaign until June of that year when they were ordered back to Springfield to be mustered out of service. Swanwick would leave the service that July. A period ink signature by Francis graces the back of the card reading, “Yours truly F. Swanwick”. No back mark on this one.