Edmund Kirby Smith (May 16, 1824March 28, 1893) was a Confederate States Army general, who oversaw the Trans-Mississippi Department (comprising Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, western Louisiana, Arizona Territory and the Indian Territory) from 1863 to 1865. Before the American Civil War, Smith served as an officer of the United States Army.

Smith was wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run and distinguished himself during the Heartland Offensive, the Confederacy's unsuccessful attempt to capture Kentucky in 1862. He was appointed as commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department in January 1863. The area included most actions east of the Rocky Mountains and west of the Mississippi River. In 1863, Smith dispatched troops in an unsuccessful attempt to relieve the Siege of Vicksburg. After the United States took control of Vicksburg in July, the Trans-Mississippi Department was cut off from the rest of the Confederacy and became virtually an independent nation, nicknamed "Kirby Smithdom".

In the Red River Campaign of Spring 1864, he commanded victorious Confederate troops under Major-General Richard Taylor, who defeated a combined Union Army and Navy assault under U.S. Major-General Nathaniel P. Banks. On June 2, 1865, Smith surrendered his army at Galveston, Texas, the last general with a major field force.

He quickly fled to Mexico and then to Cuba to avoid arrest for treason. His wife negotiated his return during the period when the U.S. government offered amnesty to those who would take an oath of loyalty to the United States. After the war, Smith worked in the telegraph and railway industries. He also served as a professor of mathematics at the University of the South in Tennessee. He botanized plant specimens and bequeathed his collection to the University of Florida.

Early life and education

thumb|left|[[Segui-Kirby Smith House|Edmund Kirby Smith's boyhood home at St. Augustine, Florida]]

Edmund Kirby Smith was born in 1824 in St. Augustine, Florida, as the youngest child of Joseph Lee Smith, an attorney, and Frances ( Kirby) Smith. Both his parents were natives of Litchfield, Connecticut, where their older children were born. The family moved to Florida in 1821, as the senior Smith was appointed as a Superior Court judge in the new Florida Territory, acquired by the U.S. from Spain. and Josephine, who died in 1835, likely of tuberculosis. He was interested in botany and nature,

On July 1, 1841, Smith entered West Point and was graduated four years later in 1845, ranking 25th out of 41 cadets.

Smith also taught at West Point after the war. He collected and studied materials as a botanist; like many other military officers, he was also a scientist. He donated to the Smithsonian Institution some of his collection and reports from his time at West Point. Smith continued his botanical studies as a hobby for the remainder of his life. He is credited with collecting and describing several species of plants native to Tennessee and Florida. Smith was assigned to teach mathematics at West Point from 1849 to 1852. According to his letters to his mother, he was happy with this environment.

Returning to troop-leading assignments, Smith served in the Southwest. On May 13, 1859, he was wounded in his thigh while fighting Comanche in the Nescutunga Valley of Kansas. also known as the Battle of Crooked Creek (Kansas).

On April 8, 1864, General Richard Taylor, directly under Smith's command, soundly defeated a combined Union Army and Navy incursion into the Trans-Missippippi under General Nathaniel P. Banks at the Battle of Mansfield in the Red River Campaign.

His amnesty having been negotiated by his wife, Smith returned to the United States later that year to take an oath of loyalty at Lynchburg, Virginia, on November 14, 1865. He headed the newly-created Montgomery Bell Academy there, with former Confederate General Bushrod Johnson as principal.

In 1875, Smith left that post to become a professor of mathematics and botany at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tennessee. Part of his collection from those years was donated to the universities of North Carolina and Harvard, and to the Smithsonian Institution. He kept up a correspondence with botanists at other institutions. He taught at the University of the South until he died of pneumonia in 1893. He was the last surviving full general from the Civil War. He is buried in the University Cemetery at Sewanee.

In 1875, Smith accepted an appointment as a professor at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. There the family lived happily until the end of his life. They had five sons and six daughters: Caroline (1862–1941), Frances (1864–1930), Edmund (1866–1938), Lydia (1868–1962), Nina (1870–1965), Elizabeth (1872–1937), Reynold (1874–1962), William (1876–1967), Josephine (1878–1961), Joseph Lee (1882–1939), and Ephraim (1884–1938).

Reynold, William, Joseph, and Ephraim all played for the Sewanee Tigers football team. Joseph and Ephraim both achieved All-Southern status in football. Joseph was a member of the famed 1899 "Iron Men" and Ephraim was selected for Sewanee's All-Time football team.

Legacy

  • A dormitory building on the campus of LSU in Baton Rouge was named Edmund Kirby Smith Hall. It was demolished in 2022.
  • A portrait of Edmund Kirby Smith by Cornelius Hankins hangs in the Wyatt Center at Vanderbilt University. (The other is of John Gorrie, inventor of mechanical refrigeration and air conditioning.) On March 19, 2018, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed legislation to replace the statue with one of African-American civil rights activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune. The statue was to be moved to the Lake County Historical Museum in Tavares, after residents of his birthplace, St. Augustine, expressed no interest. While Smith never lived in Lake County, when he was born, it was a part of St. Johns County, whose seat is St. Augustine. At a County Commission meeting on July 24, 2018, about 24 residents spoke against, and none in favor, of bringing the statue to Lake County. Chairman Sullivan assured the crowd that the commission would tell the Historical Museum "that there is no longer a want or desire to bring this statue to Lake County". Despite the strong opposition from the public and nine mayors in the county, the Board of County Commissioners voted on August 6, 2019, to approve the statue installation. Hundreds protested the transfer of the statue to Lake County on August 10, 2019, and citizen groups posted an online petition voicing opposition to the project, whose local sponsor was the Sons of Confederate Veterans. On July 7, 2020, Lake County commissioners voted 4–1 against accepting the statue.
  • At the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee, where he taught, he is commemorated by Kirby-Smith Point.
  • The Kirby-Smith Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy at Sewanee, and the Kirby-Smith Camp 1209, Sons of Confederate Veterans, in Jacksonville, Florida, are named for him.
  • Kirby Smith Middle School in Jacksonville was named for him. It was renamed Springfield Middle School in 2021.
  • During World War II the liberty ship was built in Panama City, Florida, in 1943, and named for him.

References

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  • .

Further reading

  • Forsyth, Michael J. (2003), The Camden Expedition of 1864 and the Opportunity Lost by the Confederacy to Change the Civil War. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., .
  • Parks, Joseph Howard (1954), General Edmund Kirby Smith, CSA. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, .
  • Pollard, Edward Alfred (1867), Lee and His Lieutenants: Comprising the Early Life, Public Services, and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee and His Companions in Arms, with a Record of Their Campaigns and Heroic Deeds. New York: E.B. Treat & Co, .
  • Prushankin, Jeffery S. (2005), A Crisis in Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor and the Army of the Trans-Mississippi. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, .
  • Smith, Ephraim Kirby (2006), To Mexico with Scott: Letters of Captain E. Kirby Smith to His Wife, edited and with Introduction by R.M. Johnston, scanned and reissued.
  • Sifakis, Stewart (1988), Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts on File, .
  • Silkenat, David. Raising the White Flag: How Surrender Defined the American Civil War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2019. .
  • Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. .

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; Official

  • Edmund Kirby-Smith Papers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

; General information

  • Edmund Kirby Smith at Architect of the Capitol

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