Green’s Dictionary of Slang

swod-gill n.

a soldier.

1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang. in McLachlan (1964) 273: swoddy, or swod-gill a soldier.
1835		Metropolitan Mag. XIV Sept. 334: Out, howsoever, jumped one of the swells, who was a swodgill, on the other side of the rattler, and coolly taking aim with his stick, brought down poor Bob.