Edmund Kirby Smith

Edmund Kirby Smith

Edmund Kirby Smith (born May 16, 1824 in St. Augustine , Florida , † March 28, 1893 in Sewanee , Tennessee ) was a general in the Confederate Army in the Civil War .

Life until civil war

Smith was the son of Joseph and Francis Smith from Connecticut . His father was called to serve as a federal judge in St. Augustine. His parents envisaged a military career for their son and sent him to a cadet school in Alexandria , Virginia in 1836 . Smith was appointed to the Military Academy at West Point , New York on July 1, 1841 and graduated after four years as the 25th of 41 cadets of his class. Since he came from the sparsely populated state of Florida, his fellow students called him "Seminole".

Promoted to lieutenant, he served first in the 5th US Infantry Regiment and from August 2, 1846 in the 7th US Infantry Regiment at the frontier. During the Mexican-American War , Congress awarded Smith on April 18, 1847 the rank of first lieutenant for bravery in the Battle of Cerro Gordo and on August 20, 1847 that of captain for his achievements in the Battle of Contreras. He also fought in the battles of Palo Alto, Monterrey , Vera Cruz and Chapultepec . Smith was transferred to the Military Academy in Westpoint as a lecturer in mathematics after the war in 1848. On March 9, 1851 he was promoted to first lieutenant in the regular army. Smith was transferred to the 2nd US Cavalry Regiment in 1852 and led the security company of the US-Mexican Commission for Boundary Survey (United States and Mexican Boundary Survey) from October 1854 to 1855. His deputy regimental commander at the time was Robert Edward Lee . Smith was promoted to captain on March 3, 1855, and continued serving on the Frontier. On May 18, 1859, he was wounded in the thigh while on patrol and promoted to major on January 31, 1861. Smith married Cassie Selden and had eleven children with her.

Civil war

When Texas left the Union on February 1, 1861, Smith was stationed in Fort Colorado, Texas. Texan troops shortly afterwards asked him to hand over the base to the Confederate without a fight, which he refused. Since his home state Florida was one of the founding states of the Confederation, Smith reconsidered his position in the following month and began his service as a cavalry officer on March 16, 1861 with the rank of lieutenant colonel in the regular army of the Confederation (ACSA). He was released from the US Army on April 6, 1861. He helped organize the Shenandoah Army in the spring of 1861, was appointed brigadier general on June 17, and commanded one of their brigades in the first battle at Bull Run , in which he was badly wounded. He returned to the service on October 11 and was promoted to major general as a division commander in the Northern Virginia Army. Smith was transferred to East Tennessee in February 1862, where he was given command of the "Kentucky Army," with which he scored a victory at Richmond, Kentucky, on August 30th. On October 9, 1862, he was promoted to lieutenant general for his military services and took over an army corps in the Tennessee Army under the command of Braxton Bragg . On January 14, 1863, he, now one of the highest ranking officers in the Confederate Army, was appointed commander of the Trans-Mississippi theater of war, which included all areas west of the Mississippi. After the loss of the Confederate Fortress of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, there was no longer any connection to the eastern part of the Confederation, since the Union troops had completely controlled the Mississippi area since then; the confederation had since been divided into two parts, and the isolated western area was nicknamed "Kirby Smithdom", which translates as "kingdom" of Kirby Smith. However, under his command were never more than 30,000 soldiers, who were also worse equipped than those in the east of the Confederation. As the commander of the western troops in 1864 he managed to fend off the invasions of the Union troops in Arkansas and Louisiana ( Red River campaign ) and to cause severe defeats for the northern states . On February 19, 1864, Smith was promoted to general for his services (as one of seven in the Confederation Army). Due to the numerical and equipment inferiority of his troops, Smith switched to small raids and guerrilla attacks. Nevertheless, Smith could not prevent the defeat of the Confederation .

After the civil war

As the last commander in command of the South, he surrendered on June 2, 1865 in Galveston, Texas and fled first via Mexico to Cuba in order to avoid a possible arrest by the victors. With honorable treatment by the victorious northern states, Smith returned to the United States in the fall and received an amnesty on November 14, 1865.

After the war, he headed the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company and was President of the University of Nashville from 1870 to 1875 . Smith was buried in the University of the South Cemetery , Sewanee.

literature

• Joseph H. Parks, General Edmund Kirby Smith, CSA Baton Rouge, LA 1954. (standard work)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} Kennedy Hickman: American Civil War: General Edmund Kirby Smith. ThoughtCo, February 11, 2020, accessed June 17, 2020 (Smith's biographical data). 
2. ^ John H. and David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, 2001, accessed June 15, 2020 (Smith's biographical data, p. 493). 
3. ^ William H. Emory: Report on the United States and Mexican boundary survey. Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed June 19, 2020 (Company Commander Escort Company). 
4. ^ John H. and David J. Eicher: Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, 2001, accessed June 19, 2020 (Smith's biographical data, p. 494). 
5. ↑ Gravesite of Edmund Kirby Smith in the Find a Grave database