Staff Sgt. Maxwell Swain Antietam National Cemetery

Grave of Staff Stg. Maxwell Swain

NPS Antietam/BBaracz

Quick Facts

Location:

Antietam National Cemetery Sharpsburg, MD

Max graduated from Hagerstown High School, a dozen miles north of Antietam Battlefield, and joined the United States Army just after graduation in 1944. By the time he reached Europe during World War II, he was a staff sergeant in his regiment, the 423rd Infantry. Fighting on the front lines at the start of the Battle of the Bulge on December 16, 1944, he was killed by machine gun fire trying to evade German forces. Swain and five others were buried along a road in an unmarked grave. A few years later their grave was discovered, and Swain’s body was identified only because of an address book given to him by his mother that he had carried into battle. He and the five others were then buried in an American cemetery in Belgium. Finally on June 15th, 1949, Swain’s remains arrived at his final resting place here at Antietam National Cemetery. His headstone lies at the end of the row in the front New York section.