William Smith (Virginia governor)

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William Smith
Member of the Virginia House of Delegates from Fauquier County
In office
1876–1877
Alongside H. B. Kerrick
30th and 35th Governor of Virginia
In office
January 1, 1864 – May 9, 1865 (Disputed)
LieutenantSamuel Price
Preceded byJohn Letcher
Succeeded byFrancis Harrison Pierpont
In office
January 1, 1846 – January 1, 1849
Preceded byJames McDowell
Succeeded byJohn B. Floyd
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 7th district
In office
March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1861
Preceded byThomas H. Bayly
Succeeded byCharles H. Upton
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 13th district
In office
December 6, 1841 – March 3, 1843
Preceded byLinn Banks
Succeeded byGeorge W. Hopkins
Member of the Virginia Senate from Culpeper, Madison, Orange, Rappahannock and Greene Counties*
In office
1836–1840
Preceded byDaniel F. Slaughter
Succeeded byJohn Woolfolk
Personal details
Born(1797-09-06)September 6, 1797
Marengo,
Major General
Battles/wars
  • Until 1838, Greene County was part of Orange County.

William "Extra Billy" Smith (September 6, 1797 – May 18, 1887) was a

major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War
. On his appointment in January 1863, at 65, Smith was the oldest Confederate general to hold field command in the war.

Early and family life

Smith was born in Marengo, (then Richmond County, Virginia now King George County, Virginia) to Mary Waugh Smith (1775-1811) (born at "Mt. Eccentric" in Fauquier County) and her cousin and husband Caleb Smith (1761-1814). His maternal grandfather (also William Smith, served in the local militia and was wounded in Lord Dunmore's War. His paternal grandfather Thomas Smith (1739-1801) had fought in the American Revolutionary War (and overwintered at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania). His uncle Col. Austin Smith served in the War of 1812 and then represented King George County in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1814, 1821, and 1822.[1] His mother's Doniphan ancestor had emigrated before 1663, and their joint ancestor, British naval officer Sir Sydney Smith emigrated circa 1720. The future governor had either six or seven siblings, including Rev. Thomas Smith (1799-1847), who was a minister at Smithfield, Virginia and later Parkersburg, West Virginia, and James Madison Smith (1808-1853).[2] Billie Smith attended private school in Virginia and Plainfield Academy in Connecticut, then returned to Virginia to read law.

In 1820, he married Elizabeth Hansbrough Bell, of a similar social class. They had eleven children, several of whom died in infancy or as young adults. Their son William Henry (1824-1850) was lost at sea, and James Caleb Smith (1822-1856) was admitted to the bar in California but died in Nicaragua.

Randolph Macon College and found Randolph College, a women's college near Lynchburg.[5]

Career

Smith was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Culpeper, Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1818. About a decade later, in 1827, Smith established a line of United States mail and passenger post coaches through Virginia, then expanded the business into the Carolinas and Georgia in 1831. It was in this role that he received his nickname. Given a contract by the administration of President Andrew Jackson to deliver mail between Washington, D.C., and Milledgeville, Georgia (then the state capital),[6] Smith extended it with numerous spur routes, generating extra fees. During an investigation of the Post Office Department, Smith's extra fees were publicized by U.S. Senator Benjamin W. Leigh. Smith became known as "Extra Billy" in both the Northern and Southern United States.

Smith owned ten enslaved people in the 1840 census.[7] Interested in politics and a

Twenty-eighth Congress. He then moved to Fauquier County
.

Elected by legislators as Governor of Virginia in 1845, Smith served from 1846 to 1849, during the

Thirty-third Congress and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1853 – March 3, 1861). Although chosen for the Confederate States Congress, he resigned in 1862 in favor of military service. He was again elected governor in 1863 (this time by popular election in Confederate-held territory) and served until the end of the war.[9]

Electoral history

Civil War

When Virginia

49th Virginia Infantry regiment just three days before the First Battle of Bull Run
, where the regiment and new commander performed well.

General William Smith

Smith served in the

Peninsula Campaign. He was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, and his regiment received favorable notice in his commander's report. During the Seven Days Battles, the regiment was lightly engaged, but he and his command again were described as having "characteristic coolness" and "fearlessness." He was known for expressing contempt for West Point graduates ("West P'inters") and their formal tactics, recommending common sense to his men instead of military education. He distinguished himself with his unorthodox field uniform, including a tall beaver hat
and a blue cotton umbrella.

At the

Jubal Early's division. He was wounded three times but continued to command, and Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart wrote that he was "conspicuously brave and self-possessed." By the end of the battle, he had to be carried from the field. In recognition of his performance, he was promoted to brigadier general on January 31, 1863. He commanded a brigade in the Battle of Chancellorsville
but achieved no distinction.

By the time of the

Inspector General
on August 12 and performed recruiting duty in Virginia.

Postbellum career

Before the Gettysburg Campaign, Smith was elected again as Governor of Virginia and served from January 1, 1864, to the war's end. He was among the first Southern governors to advocate arming blacks to provide additional troops for the Confederacy. He occasionally returned to the field to command forces in defense of Richmond. He was removed from office and arrested on May 9, 1865, but was paroled on June 8.

He returned to his estate, "Monte Rosa" (later renamed "Neptune Lodge") near Warrenton, Virginia, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits. At the age of eighty, he became a member of the Virginia House of Delegates (1877–79). He died in Warrenton and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.

See also

References

  1. ^ Lucy Montgomery Smith Price, The Sydney-Smith and Clagett-Price Genealogy (Strasburg, Shenandoah Publishing House 1927) pp.50-54
  2. ^ Lucy M.S. Price, pp.46-47
  3. ^ Memoirs of William C. Smith available online
  4. ^ Frederick Waugh Smith (July 6, 1928). "VMI Archives Historical Rosters: Frederick Waugh Smith". Archivesweb.vmi.edu. Retrieved July 19, 2022.
  5. ^ Appleton's Cyclopedia vol. V, p. 594
  6. ISSN 1533-6271
    .
  7. ^ 1840 U.S. Federal Census for Culpeper County, Virginia p. 60 and 61 of 73
  8. ^ Appleton p. 594
  9. ^ Appleton's p. 594

External links

U.S. House of Representatives
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 13th congressional district
1841–1843 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from Virginia's 7th congressional district
1853–1861 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Governor of Virginia
1846–1849 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Governor of Virginia
1864–1865 		Succeeded by
Francis H. Pierpont
Unionist Governor
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