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Class of 1824

Vol. I
p336 390

(Born Md.)

Joseph Van Swearingen

(Ap'd Md.)

Military History. — Cadet at the Military Academy, July 16, 1819, to July 1, 1824, when he was graduated and promoted in the Army to

Bvt. Second Lieut., 1st Infantry, July 1, 1824.

Second Lieut., 6th Infantry, July 1, 1824.

Served: on frontier duty at Ft. Atkinson, Council Bluffs, Io., 1826‑27; in garrison at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., 1828‑29; on frontier duty at Ft.

(First Lieut., 6th Infantry, May 12, 1829)

Leavenworth, Kan., 1829, — and on Expedition to the Upper Arkansas, 1829; in garrison at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., 1829‑32; in "Black Hawk" War, against the Sac Indians, 1832; on frontier duty at Jefferson Barracks, Mo., 1833‑36, — Ft. Jesup, La., 1836, — and Camp Sabine, La., 1836; and in the Florida War, being engaged against the Seminole

(Captain, 6th Infantry, July 31, 1837)

Indians in the Battle of Okee-cho‑bee, where he was

Killed,1 Dec. 25, 1837: Aged 38.

Buried, Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Lemay, MO.

The Author's Note:

1 Capt. Van Swearingen was shot by the enemy's concentrated deadly fire upon five companies of his regiment, while pressing forward to the attack, like a "moving battery," till p337 nearly cut up, and few were left uninjured. In the language of the official despatch of the battle, "Capt. Van Swearingen, Lieutenant Indicates a West Point graduate and gives his Class. Brooke, and Adjutant Center, who fell on that day, had no superior of their years in the service, and in point of chivalry ranked among the first in the army or nation."

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