Biography
Ellen Macgill Swan was a daughter of Hagerstown physician Dr. Charles Macgill and the wife of Robert Swan. Marshall identifies her as Mrs. Robert Swan and reports that, after the Gettysburg campaign in 1863, she was held with her mother and sisters in the guarded Macgill home. Federal authorities then ordered her and her sister Alice sent South after neighbors alleged that the sisters had shot a Union soldier from the house. Marshall disputes the accusation. The women were taken under guard to Baltimore, confined overnight under guard in a garret and then escorted to Winchester, Virginia. A contemporary death notice independently identifies Ellen Swan as Colonel Robert Swan's widow and Dr. Charles Macgill's daughter. Exact custody dates are not established. Sources: John A. Marshall, American Bastile (1869), printed pages 372–373, https://archive.org/details/americanbastile00marsgoog; Richmond Dispatch, September 23, 1890, printed page 3, Swan death notice, https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/ndnp/vi/batch_vi_ironmaiden_ver03/data/sn85038614/00175031029/1890092301/0349.pdf.
