William Sooy Smith
William Sooy Smith | |
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Battles/wars | American Civil War
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William Sooy Smith (July 22, 1830 – March 4, 1916) was a West Point graduate and career civil engineer who became a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
In civilian life, he was a renowned engineer involved in bridge construction that included the building of the first large all steel bridge in the world.[1]
Early life and career
Smith was born in Tarlton, Ohio, and graduated from Ohio University in 1849 with an engineering degree. He furthered this degree at West Point as soon as he left the university, graduating sixth in his class from the U.S. Military Academy in 1853. Smith resigned from the Army on June 19, 1854 to accept a position with the Illinois Central Railroad.
Smith established the engineering company Parkinson & Smith in 1857, and was involved in the first surveys for a bridge between the United States and Canada across the Niagara River near Niagara Falls.
Civil War
In 1861 at the outbreak of the Civil War, Smith joined the
On January 27, 1864, as part of the
Afterwards, he served as chief of
Postbellum career
After leaving the army Smith returned to civil engineering. In 1867, he sank the first pneumatic caisson of the Waugoshanee lighthouse in the Straits of Mackinaw. At Glasgow, Missouri, from 1878 to 1879, Smith worked on the Glasgow Railroad Bridge. This was the first all-steel bridge, which crossed the Missouri River.[1]
In 1876 Smith was awarded the American Centennial Exposition prize, and continued to work in engineering until retirement to
See also
References
- ^ a b c d e f Civil War Reference Civil War Reference accessed and retrieved 2011-07-03
- ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1. p. 728.
- ^ President Abraham Lincoln sent the nomination of Smith for the appointment to the U.S. Senate on April 5, 1862, during the Battle of Shiloh, and the Senate confirmed the nomination on April 15, 1862. Eicher, 2001, p. 728.
- ^ Sherman, William T. "The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman". www.gutenberg.org/. D. Appleton 1889. Retrieved June 6, 2021.
- ^ The American Battlefield Protection Program Okolona retrieved July 7, 2007