Martin Luther Smith
Martin Luther Smith | |
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Major General (CSA) | |
Battles/wars | Mexican–American War American Civil War |
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Martin Luther Smith (September 9, 1819 – July 29, 1866) was an American soldier and civil engineer, serving as a major general in the Confederate States Army. Smith was one of the few Northern-born generals to fight for the Confederacy, as he had served most of his early military career in the South with the United States Army's topographical engineers, marrying a native of Athens, Georgia. He planned and constructed the defenses of Vicksburg.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1e/20-13-251-smith.jpg/220px-20-13-251-smith.jpg)
Early life
Smith was born in
, where he surveyed the terrain and drew maps for army usage. In 1846, he married a Georgia woman and subsequently raised a family.He served as an engineer during the
Civil War
After resigning, he was commissioned as a
He was exchanged in early 1864 and briefly was the head of the Engineer Corps for the entire Confederate Army from March until April, when he became the chief engineer for the
Postbellum life
Smith moved to Savannah, Georgia, soon after the war ended and established a civil engineering company. He died less than a year later. At the time of his death, he was chief engineer of the railroad system that linked Selma, Alabama, with Dalton, Georgia (the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad).[3] He is buried in Oconee Hill Cemetery in Athens, Georgia.[4]
A bust of General Smith stands at the Vicksburg National Military Park. It was sculpted in 1911 by Henry Hudson Kitson.
See also
Notes
References
- Eicher, John H., and ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
- Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
- ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
- Welsh, Jack D., Medical Histories of Confederate Generals, Kent State University Press, Kent OH, 1995.
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wilson, J. G.; Fiske, J., eds. (1891). Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
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