Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Swords, Robert Smith 1816-1881

Author; born in New York City, July 12, 1816; graduated at Columbia College in 1834; later was admitted to the bar, and practised for ten years. He removed to New Jersey in 1849 and was magistrate for Union township for twelve years. He served in the Civil War as lieutenant-colonel of the 13th New Jersey Volunteers, being present in the engagements at Antietam and South Mountain; resigned in 1863; and settled in Newark, N. J. He was for many years secretary of the board of trade of Newark; corresponding secretary of the New Jersey State Agricultural Society, and treasurer of the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, of the board of proprietors of east New Jersey, and from 1867 of the New Jersey Historical Society. He contributed Memoir of the life and character of John Rutherford; and The bones of Columbus to the Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society. He died in Newark, N. J., Jan. 15, 1881.