Charles Ferguson Smith (April 24, 1807 – April 25, 1862) was a career U.S. Army officer who served in the Mexican War and as a Union general in the American Civil War.
Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1825 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Artillery. As he rose slowly through the ranks of the peacetime army, he returned to West Point as an instructor and was appointed Commandant of Cadets as a first lieutenant, serving in that position from 1838 to 1843.
As an artillery battalion commander he distinguished himself in the Mexican War, at Palo Alto, Resaca, Monterrey, and Churubusco. He received brevet promotions to colonel for his service in these battles and ended the war as a lieutenant colonel in the regular army. He commanded the Red River expedition in Minnesota of 1856–57, and served under Albert Sidney Johnston in Utah (1857–1860).
After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Smith accepted a commission as brigadier general of Union volunteers (August 31, 1861), and eventually became a division commander in the Department of the Missouri under Ulysses S. Grant, who had been one of his pupils at West Point. This difficult situation was eased by Smith's loyalty to his young chief, and the old soldier led his division of raw volunteers with success at the Battle of Fort Donelson.
Smith's experience, dignity, and unselfish character made him Grant's mainstay in the early days of the war. He went up the Tennessee River with Grant's first expedition, but at Savannah, Tennessee, met with an accident that seriously injured his leg. His senior brigadier led his division at the Battle of Shiloh.
Smith died of an infection following his leg injury and chronic dysentery at Savannah, Tennessee, and is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia.
The early close of his career in high command deprived the Union army of one of its best leaders, and his absence was nowhere more felt than on the battlefield of Shiloh, where the Federals paid heavily for the inexperience of their generals. A month before his death he had been made major general of volunteers.
References
- Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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