Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/435

 SMITH

SMITH

forts, he commanded the two batteries of the C'halmette that it was hoped would stop the Federal fleet. He was commissioned brigadier- general April 11, 1862, and was ordered to Vicks- burg to assume command and strengthen the de- fences of that place. He arrived May 12, 1862, and found one regiment, one battalion and three batteries complete. On May 18, 1862. the advance of Farragut's fleet arrived from Baton Rouge and bombarded the works, firing 20.000 charges of sliot and shell; but although supported by 5.000 troops on land, the twenty-seven ships of Farra- gut and Porter were unable to effect a landing, and passed under the bluff and by the batteries. The Confederate loss was only seven killed and fifteen wounded; no gun was disabled and no battery injured. General Smith was assigned to the command of the 3d military district, depart- ment of Southern Mississippi and East Louisiana, June 26, 1862; to the 2d military district, depart- ment of Mississippi and East Louisiana, Oct. 21, 1862, and was promoted major-general, Nov. 4, 1862. He directed the defences of Chickasaw Bayou in command of a division which, on Dec. 31, 1862, consisted of eleven regiments of infantry, six battalions of heavy artillery, one battalion of cavalry, being largely the brigades of Vaughan, Barton and S. D. Lee. The Federal loss was nearly 2,000 killed, wounded and prisoners, and this was said to be the only defeat experienced by General Sherman dviring the war. After the arrival of General Pemberton. Smith's division occupied the northern lines during the second siege. He surrendered with the army at Vicks- burg, July 4, 1863, but at the request of General Grant, remained in charge of Confederate sick and wounded until Aug. 1. He was exchanged about February, 1864, and was assigned to tem- porary duty as chief of the engineer bureau, March 9, 1864; and was promoted chief engineer, Army of Northern Virginia, April 6, 1864. He established the lines on which all the battles from the Wilderness to Petersburg were fought. At the battle of the Wilderness he was ordered by General Lee to report to General Longstreet, who had just arrived with the 1st army corps, and planned and executed the flanking movement that turned the Federal extreme left, on the Brock road. On Oct. 19, 1864, he was made chief engi- neer. Army of Tennessee; and on Jan. 4, 1865, was ordered to duty as chief engineer of the Mili- tary division of the West. He retired to Athens, Ga., after the war, and was chief engineer of the Alabama and Tennessee railroad, and in 1866 was elected professor of engineering in the Uni- versity of Georgia, the chair having been occu- pied by Charles Phillips until the war closed the university. He had not assumed the duties of his office when he died at Rome, Ga., July 29, 1866.

SMITH, Mary Prudence Wells, author, was born in Attica, N.Y., July oO, 1840; daughter of Dr. Noah S. and Esther Nims (Coleman) Wells; granddaughter of Capt. William and Prudence (May) Wells and of Capt. Thaddeus and Milli- cent (Newton) Coleman, and a descendant of Thomas Wells (b, Colchester, England, 1620; settled in Hartford, Conn., 1636); and of Thomas Coleman (b. Evesham, England; settled in Wethersfield, Conn., 1639). She attended the Greenfield, Mass., high school and Sliss Draper's Female seminary, Hartford, Conn.. 1858-59; was assistant teacher at the Greenfield higli school; and assistant in the Franklin Savings institution, being the first woman employed in a savings bank in Massachusetts. She was married, April 14, 1875, to Judge Fayette, son of the Rev. Pre- served and Tryphena (Goldsbury) Smith, of Cin- cinnati, Ohio. During Mrs. Smith's twenty-one years' residence in Cincinnati, she was a member of the Women's Art Museum association, started and was for fourteen years president of the Woman's Alliance Branch in the Unitarian church, helping to originate the Post Office Mis- sion; was one of the seven founders of the Cin- cinnati Women's club, and president of the Home library for poor children in the Associated Charities. In 1896 Judge Smith removed to Greenfield, Mass., where Mrs. Smith resided in 1903. She is the author of the Jollij Good Series, for children (18 vols., 1875-95); Miss Ellis's Mis- sion (1886); The Young Puritans of Old Hadley (1897); The Young Puritans of King Phillip's War (1898); The Young Puritans in Captivity (1899); JVliat Women have done in Literature in the United States since 1649 (1899); The Young and Old Puritans of Hatfield (1900); Four on a Farm (1901), and numerous magazine articles written under the pen name " P. Thorne."

SMITH, Matthew Hale, lecturer and author, was born in Portland, Maine, in 1816; son of the Rev. Elias Smith (q.v.) and Rachel (Thurber) Smith. He was ordained to the Universalist ministry in 1833; became a convert to Unitarian- ism, and was ordained in Maiden, Mass., in 1842, and served as pastor in several churches in Massacliusetts until 1850, when he was admitted to the bar and began practice in New York city. He continued to supply pulpits in various denom- inations, but devoted most of his attention to journalism, contributing a series of articles known as the " Burleigh Letters" to the Boston Journal. He served throughout the civil war as cliaplain of the 12th New York volunteers. He conducted a lecture tour through the principal cities of the United States in 1877, his subjects including: "Old Times and Our Times," "Wit and Humor," " From the Thames to the Tiber." He was married in Boston, Mass., to Mary Adams,