Albert M. Swift

Texas Rangers — Austin, TX

Illness

End of Watch December 27, 1870

Age 35

Tour of Duty 2 mo

The Vigil Panel 4 ›

Gender Male

Incident Service The Sacrifice Department 121

Incident

Albert M. Swift enlisted on December 14, 1854 at age 19 in Company C of the Texas Rangers Mounted Volunteers and served for three months until he was discharged on March 14, 1855. At about age 35, Swift re-enlisted on October 1, 1870 for one year in Captain H. R. Biberstein’s Company L, but was discharged on October 31, 1870 by Governor E. J. Davis. On November 5, 1870 he re-enlisted in Company F of the Texas Rangers Frontier Forces and served until his death less than two months later. The monthly return of Company F, Frontier Forces for December 1870, states that "A. M. Swift left sick in hospital at Fort Griffin, Texas Dec. 14, 1870." The monthly return also talks about the severe weather, snow storms and lack of tents, shelter, and medical attention that the Rangers had to endure. There is also correspondence relating how several of their horses and mules froze to death because of the inclement weather. The muster roll for this company, for the period November 5, 1870, to June 15, 1871, states that A. M. Swift "died at Fort Griffin, Tex. Dec. 27, 70". The Texas State Archives reports that Swift must have been a casualty of the weather conditions or from some illness possibly contracted because of the weather.

Very little personal information is known about Private Swift except that he was reported to have been born in both Germany and Missouri between 1835-1837.

According to the book "On the Border with Mackenzie", in a seperate accounting of the Dec 1870 winter storm, temperatures dipped to -10 deg farenheit in north Texas.

Even allowing for inaccuracy of the time this was very sever for Texas and almost no one would have had adequate shelter or clothing.

Thos almost certainly contributed to Private Swift's death.

Keith Holt History buff February 8th, 2022

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Permanent identifier: BO-US-TX-46727CB0
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Added to badge.nw: April 2, 2026
Last updated: July 23, 2026

Honored here by 1 sentinel - 1 tribute.

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Tributes

156 years is a long time for a name to go unread. Not today.
Private Swift served with the Texas Rangers.
Thank you for your service to the Austin community. Gone but never to be forgotten.

— S. Vincent Anthony, U.S. Army 1985-1993

Agency

Department Texas Rangers

Location Austin, TX

Platform Identity tr.travis.tx.us.gov.nw

Service Record

End of Watch December 27, 1870

Tour of Duty 2 mo

Age 35

Gender Male

Incident Details

Cause Illness

Cause Detail Duty related illness

Private Albert M. Swift is one of 2,974 officers lost to illness connected to their service across the full record of this memorial — 9.1% of all 32,508 officers honored here.

In TX, 204 of 2,421 officers were lost to illness connected to their service — 8.4% of this state's fallen. That is 0.7 percentage points below the national rate of 9.1%.

At Texas Rangers, 7 of 122 officers on record were lost to illness connected to their service — 5.7% of this agency's fallen.

Texas Rangers

of 122 officers

5.7% Illness

TX — Statewide

204

of 2,421 officers

8.4% Illness

Nationwide

2,974

of 32,508 officers

9.1% Illness