Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/648

 608 captain for gallantry at Cerro Gordo. In 1849 he became principal assistant professor of engineering at West Point, a position he resigned December 18, 1854, to make his home at New Orleans. In 1856 he removed to New York city, where in 1858 he was appointed street commissioner. He resigned this position in 1861 to join the Confederate movement. He was appointed major-general and put in command of the second corps of the Confederate army in Virginia, on the transfer of General Beauregard, and was at this time the second officer in rank under General Johnston. He commanded the reserve at Yorktown and the rear guard in the move ment toward Richmond. When General Johnston was wounded at Seven Pines May 31, 1861, the command of the army devolved upon General Smith, who was sick at the time, though on the field. On the day following the battle of Seven Pines General Smith was relieved by the assignment of General Robert E. Lee to the command of the army of Northern Virginia. This assignment was agreeable to and expected by General Smith, who was physically in an unfit condition to take command of the army. He had done valuable service around Richmond, and presently continued these services under General Beauregard at Charleston, after which he engaged in superintending the Etowah iron works for the armies until in 1864 they were destroyed on Sherman's advance. Governor Brown, of Georgia, having called out a militia force of about 10,000 men exempt from conscription, the command was given to General Smith, with General Toombs as adjutant-general, both of these officers having resigned their commissions in the Confederate army. In this service, under General Johnston, he organized the State forces and fought them with very marked efficiency until the surrender. General Smith embarked in civil life after the war in various honorable pursuits and closed his days in New York city, June 23, 1896.