American historian, born in Haddingtonshire, Scotland, on the 23rd of April 1833. He removed with his mother to Montreal, Canada, in 1843; studied at Amherst College, MA, and at Knox College, Toronto; was instructor in language in Edgeworth Seminary, North Carolina, and in Mount Washington Institute, New York. While teaching he published a series of articles in Putnam’s Magazine, which were afterward reprinted as Rambles Among Words (1859). During the Civil War he served as field-correspondent of the New York Times and witnessed many of the more important engagements, but incurred the displeasure of a number of the Union generals, who prevented him from visiting the front at some critical moments. He published, in book form, Campaigns of the Army of the Potomac (1866); The Twelve Decisive Battles of the War (1867); and The History of the New York Seventh Regiment During the Rebellion (1870). He was appointed to the chair of English in the University of California in 1869, remaining until 1874, when he returned to New York to engage in literary work, preparing a series of textbooks, among them Word Analysis and Masterpieces of English Literature (1880). He died in New York City, on the 24th of October 1892.—His brother, John Swinton, a journalist, born in Salton, Scotland, on the 12th of December 1829. He removed with the family to Canada in 1843, and later to the United States; studied at Williston Seminary, Massachusetts, and in 1856 entered journalism to assist in the Free-State cause in Kansas. He was with the New York Times and Sun until 1883, when he began the publication of John Swinton’s Paper, but returned to the staff of the Sun in 1889. He died in 1901. He published several volumes, among them New Issue: The Chinese-American Question (1870); A Eulogy on Henry J. Raymond (1870); John Swinton’s Travels (1880); and John Brown, an oration (1881).
