Part 1 (1/2)

Heroes of the Great Conflict; Life and Services of William Farrar Smith, Major General, United States Volunteer in the Civil War.

by James Harrison Wilson.

William Farrar Smith, the subject of this sketch, graduated at West Point in 1845, fourth in a cla.s.s of forty-one members. He died at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of February, 1903 in his seventy-ninth year.

The publication of the Rebellion Records puts within the reach of every student the official reports of the various campaigns and battles of the Great Conflict, but something more is needed. They deal but slightly with men's motives, and still less with their personal peculiarities. They give only here and there any idea whatever of the origin of the plans of campaigns or battles and rarely any adequate description of the topography of the theatre of war, or of the difficulties to be overcome. They describe but superficially the organization, equipment, armament and supply of the troops, and leave their trials, hards.h.i.+ps and extraordinary virtues largely to the imagination. They are entirely silent as to the qualities and idiosyncrasies of the leaders. Neither romance nor personal adventure finds any place within their pages, and fine writing is entirely foreign to their purpose. They are for the most part dry and unemotional in style, and are put together so far as possible chronologically in the order of their importance without the slightest reference to literary effect. While nothing is more untrustworthy generally than personal recollections of events which took place over a third of a century ago, those which are supported by letters and diaries are of inestimable value in construing and reconciling the official reports. But this is not all. The daily journals and other contemporaneous publications are quite important and cannot be safely left out of account. All must be taken into consideration before the final distribution of praise and blame is made, or the last word is written in reference to events or to the great actors who controlled or took part in them.

In the list of the most notable men of the day the name of Major General WILLIAM FARRAR SMITH must be recorded. He belonged at the outbreak of the Civil War, to that distinguished group of which Lee on the Southern side and McClellan on the Northern, were the center.

Joseph E. Johnston and William B. Franklin were his most intimate friends, and I but recall what was then the popular belief when I state that they were widely regarded as the best educated and the most brilliant officers in the service. They were in middle life, in the full enjoyment of their powers, and it was the confident opinion of those who knew them best, that they were sure to become conspicuous leaders in the impending conflict. Great things were expected of them, and in this the world was not disappointed. They all reached high rank and great distinction, but only one of the group was fortunate enough to enroll himself amongst the world's great commanders. Johnston rose to the leaders.h.i.+p of an independent army but failed to win a great victory or to secure the entire approval of his superiors. Franklin was without doubt a corps commander of sound judgment and unshakable courage, but he also failed to achieve the success that was expected of him, and to secure the support and confidence that his high character fully ent.i.tled him to look for from his Government. Smith who was not inferior to the ablest of his friends and contemporaries, in the art and science of war, had a career of great usefulness, in which he rendered services of extraordinary value and brilliancy but which ended in disappointment and unhappiness.

He was however not only a conspicuous officer connected with important events throughout his life, and especially during the Great Conflict, but he was a singularly virile and independent character who exerted great influence over all with whom he came in contact. He was strong, self-contained and deliberate in speech, and having been an industrious student and an acute thinker all his life, his opinions always commanded attention and respect. It so happened that his services brought him into the very focus of events on more than one occasion. It so happened also that I was more or less intimate with him to the time of his death, from the date of my entry into the Military Academy, where I had the good fortune to receive his instruction in mathematics.

I first met him in the field, while I was serving temporarily on the staff of General McClellan, and he was commanding a division in the Antietam campaign, and next at Chattanooga, whither I was sent in advance of General Grant to prepare for his coming, after the disastrous battle of Chickamauga.

Shortly afterwards Smith was transferred to Grant's staff as Chief Engineer, and we messed and served together, in the closest intimacy throughout that campaign, and until I was a.s.signed to duty in the War Department in charge of the Cavalry Bureau. I saw him frequently while I was commanding a division of cavalry and he an army corps in Grant's overland campaign against Richmond. During the latter period we were exceedingly intimate, and when we were not serving together an active correspondence was kept up between us. It is a source of pleasure and satisfaction to me that this intimacy became still closer after General Smith was appointed agent of the United States and a.s.signed as a civil engineer to the charge of the river and harbor works on the Delaware and Maryland peninsula, with his office at Wilmington, Delaware. This long and close intimacy, extending as it did over the greater part of a lifetime, has afforded me an ample opportunity of studying his character and familiarizing myself with the facts of his military career, and with the point of view from which he considered his relations to the men and events with which he was so conspicuously connected.

A man of great purity of character and great singleness of purpose, he took an intense interest in whatever his hand found to do. He felt a deep and abiding concern in all public and professional questions, and was both a tender and affectionate friend and an unrelenting enemy. He was a bold and resolute thinker who indulged in no half way measures.

The bolder his plans and the more dangerous his undertakings, the more careful was he in working out the details, and the more attentive was he in supervising their execution. He left nothing to chance, but provided for every possible contingency with infinite care and yet he was a rapid worker. Methodical in his habits, untiring in his application and deliberate in his manner, he was always ready, always on time and nearly always successful.

In following him through the trials and vicissitudes of his active life it will be seen that he was one of the most interesting personalities of his day. He played a bold and distinguished part in the war for the Union, quite out of proportion to the actual command which fell to his lot. Indeed, it may well be doubted if any other single officer exerted a more potential or beneficial influence than he did upon the plans and operations in which he took part. While he was austere and reserved in manners, he was most highly esteemed by all with whom he served, and received unstinted praise for his suggestions and a.s.sistance, and yet strangely enough he became involved in several notable military controversies, which so enlisted his interest and wounded his pride as to materially change his career and cause him great unhappiness, during the later years of his life.

It may be truly said that he came to know by experience the dangers of frankness and friendly criticism, and that even the most patriotic and unselfish men in these modern times, like those of antiquity ”have their ambitions which neither seas nor mountains nor unpeopled deserts can limit;” their egotism and personal interests ”which neither victory nor far-reaching fame can suppress;” their secret motives and purposes which ”cause them to injure one another when they touch and are close together.” After all, generals and statesmen are but fallible men, the most magnanimous of whom are watchful of their rivals, and love not those who despitefully use them. In the vindication of his claims that he has rendered some service to his country, General Smith has made several valuable contributions[1] to current American history, and has in addition left a ma.n.u.script volume of personal memoirs upon which I shall draw as occasion offers, and which will doubtless be published in due time. They were written during the last two years of his life and throw an interesting light, not only upon his own deeds and character, but upon the life and services of his friends and contemporaries. They are conceived in a kindly and charitable vein which does credit both to his heart and to his understanding.

[Footnote 1: From Chattanooga to Petersburg under Generals Grant and Butler, Houghton, m.u.f.fin & Co., N.Y. 1893.]

WILLIAM FARRAR SMITH was born at St. Albans, in Northern Vermont, on the 17th of February, 1824. He came of good New England stock, which emigrated from Ma.s.sachusetts to the valley of Lake Champlain before the beginning of the last century. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors and relations were notable people, and took prominent parts in the troubles of a thinly-settled frontier, and especially in the French and Indian war, and in the Committee of Safety, as well as in the militia and volunteers during the Revolutionary War. They fought at the battle of Lake George, at the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, and at the affairs at Hubbardton and Bennington. They were the companions of Stark, Seth Warner and Ethan Allen, and appear to have borne themselves bravely and well upon all occasions. They were by name Robinsons, Saffords, Fays, Butlers and Smiths. There is a well-founded tradition that his father's family, which came from the old hill town of Barre, Ma.s.sachusetts, were known during the earlier colonial days as Smithson, but before emigrating to Vermont dropped the second syllable for the sake of simplicity, and always thereafter called themselves Smith.

William's father was a respectable farmer at or near St. Albans. His uncle John was a lawyer and a judge of distinction, and during the excitement growing out of the Canadian rebellion of 1837, was elected to the next Congress. He was a Democrat and the only one up to that time ever elected from the State. During his term of service he gave the appointment of cadet at West Point to his nephew William. His cousin John Gregory Smith, also a lawyer of distinction, was afterwards Governor of Vermont, and for many years president of the Vermont Central and Northern Pacific Railroads. His grandmother Smith also from Barre, was the sister of a certain Captain Gregory of the Highland regiment serving in Boston before the Revolution. Through this connection the General always believed he received a strain of McGregor blood, for many of that clan took the name of Gregory after their immigration to the colonies.

His own mother was Sarah Butler, a direct descendent of Isaac and Samuel Robinson who were believed to have come in the direct line from the celebrated puritan pastor, John Robinson, of Leyden, who was long recognized by even those who differed with him on questions of doctrine as ”the most learned, polished and modest spirit that ever separated from the Church of England.” To the prepotency of this distinguished divine, General Smith often, in a tone of mingled banter and seriousness, attributed not only his habit of mature reflection and love of learning, but also his ”moderation combined with firmness” upon all questions which engaged his attention.

Be all this as it may, it is certain that his family were straight Anglo-Saxons, who like the rest, came into New England under the pressure of religious and political disturbance at home, and brought with them the st.u.r.dy virtues and ineradicable prejudices of their race.

It is equally certain that this race, whatever its origin and however it may have been compounded and produced, has thriven and expanded in America, and that our country is indebted to it for not only its greatest scholars, divines and statesmen, but for its greatest soldiers as well. General Smith belonged by nature and education to both cla.s.ses, and before this sketch is concluded I hope to show that in the highest walks of his chosen profession he had few equals and no superiors.

Like many another youth, his latent love of arms and his determination to go to West Point were aroused by seeing a company of regular soldiers, and making the acquaintance of its officers, at his native town. They were sent there to maintain order and prevent violations of the neutrality laws during the Canadian disturbances in 1837-8. From the day of his cadets.h.i.+p he received the sobriquet and was always thereafter designated familiarly by his more intimate friends as Baldy Smith in contradistinction from other officers of the same patronymic.

In the old days his name would have been written Baldysmith.

He was a brilliant and faithful student and became in turn a cadet-corporal, color-sergeant and lieutenant. When it is recalled that he received those honors from that prince of soldiers Captain (afterwards Major General) Charles F. Smith, then commandant of cadets, and in whose presence it is said no graduate of his time could ever appear without involuntarily a.s.suming the position of a soldier, it will be understood that young Smith was brought up under proper influences and sent forth with the highest ideals of his profession. He graduated in the ”fives” of his cla.s.s. He was commissioned as a Brevet Second Lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers, and served with it continuously till, for convenience and simplicity of administration, it was merged with the Corps of Engineers after the outbreak of the Rebellion. At the request of his chief, he gave up two-thirds of the usual graduating leave of absence to lend a hand to an under-manned surveying party on Lake Erie. His services were from the first of the scientific and useful rather than the showy sort. They brought him a wide range of valuable experience, extending from the surveys of the great lakes to explorations of Texas and Arizona, covering a period of seven years, two of which were spent under Joseph E. Johnston and William H. Emory, then of the same corps, while engaged in establis.h.i.+ng the new boundary line between Mexico and the United States. During his service in that region he located the stage and wagon-route from San Antonio to El Paso, surveyed a part of the Rio Grande Valley, and familiarized himself with the topography and resources of Northwestern Texas and the state of Chihuahua in Mexico.

Later he was transferred to Florida and made surveys for a s.h.i.+p ca.n.a.l across the peninsula from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.

Subsequently he had charge of the Eleventh District in the light-house service with his headquarters at Detroit. He then became a.s.sistant Secretary, and finally on the retirement of his friend, Captain Franklin, Engineer Secretary of the Light-House Board. He had previously asked for service with the army in Mexico, but this had been denied. His service in Texas and Florida had brought him in contact with a number of officers who afterwards became distinguished in the Civil War. Among the most notable of these were Buell, Joseph E.

Johnston, McClellan, Meade, Burnside and Emory. His light-house service gave him a friendly a.s.sociation with Commodore Shubrick and Captain (afterwards Admiral) Jenkins of the navy, General Totten of the army, Professor Bache of the Coast survey and Professor Henry of the Smithsonian Inst.i.tute, and opened to him a wide acquaintance with the scientific thought of the day. While connected with the Light-House board he planned and supervised the construction of four first-cla.s.s light-houses, one for Montauk Point, two for Navesink Highlands and Sandy Hook, and one for Cape Canaveral. These were all works of the highest cla.s.s, fully abreast of the world's best practice at the time.

His experience in connection with the Light-House Board prepared the way for a piece of specially useful service to the country during the exciting period just prior to the outbreak of actual hostilities between the North and the South. His position gave him access to the Secretary of the Treasury, as the chief of the department to which the Light-House Board belonged. The storm then brewing showed itself in that board, made up, as it was, of Northern and Southern men, as well as elsewhere, and being intensely loyal, Smith took measures to protect and supply the princ.i.p.al light-houses on the southern coast. It will be remembered that Howell Cobb of Georgia was succeeded by General John A.

Dix of New York as Secretary of the Treasury, and that the latter aroused the drooping hopes of the country by his celebrated order: ”If any man attempts to haul down the American flag shoot him on the spot.”

Smith was privy to and encouraged the issuance of that order.

Immediately afterwards General Dix gave him _carte-blanche_ over the light-house service, in pursuance of which he visited all the important southern light stations, winding up at Key West. He found that place cut off from communication with Was.h.i.+ngton, and liable to fall at once under the control of the Secessionists. The Collector of Customs was a southern man and disloyal. The people of the town were in sympathy with him, and were doing all they could to overawe Captains Hunt and Brannan, who were stationed there with a small force of regular artillery. They were loyal and able officers. Both rose to distinction afterwards, but having been left without instructions they were at a loss as to their proper course till Smith arrived with the latest news from Was.h.i.+ngton. His clear and determined counsel gave them heart and encouragement, under which they made good their hold upon the fort and the island. They were reinforced in due time, which enabled the government to hold this important strategic position at the entrance to the Gulf of Mexico till the termination of the war put an end to all danger. Before returning to the north, Smith visited Havana, where he obtained valuable information for future use.

So far his work had been preparatory, and one of the most useful features of it was his tour of duty at West Point. His services in the south, and especially at Corpus Christi, had brought on a severe attack of malarial poisoning, ending in congestive chills and shattered health, followed by sick-leave and a return to the north. Before he had entirely recovered he was ordered to West Point, as princ.i.p.al a.s.sistant Professor of Mathematics. This was in 1855, but his illness had so seriously affected his head as to make it impossible for him to discharge the duties of his position in a manner satisfactory to himself. As one of his pupils, I failed to discover any lack of knowledge or perspicacity on his part. To the contrary, he impressed the sections of which he had charge as a very clear-headed man with remarkable powers of mind and great apt.i.tude as a disciplinarian and teacher. It is now known, however, that the close attention and mental exertion which his duties required of him gave him such pain as to make it imperative that he should be relieved, and this was done at his own request after a year's hard work and suffering. The injury he had received was unfortunately never entirely overcome. Throughout the whole of his subsequent life he was subject to recurrent attacks of malaria, accompanied by pain in the head with a tendency to mental depression, which disabled him entirely at times, and upon one most important occasion compelled him to leave the field, when his interests and his inclinations demanded that he should remain. I refer now especially to the time when he was a.s.signed by General Grant to the command of the Army of the James, to succeed Major General Butler, who was at the same time ordered to return to Fortress Monroe. It will be remembered that this order was never carried into effect, but that General Smith, who was suffering from one of his attacks, took leave of absence, much to the concern of his friends, and went by the way of Fortress Monroe to New York. There was no great movement under way at the time, but before his leave of absence had expired he was notified that the order in question had been countermanded. Various explanations were given for this action, and I shall recur to it again. But it is believed by those who were interested in General Smith, and had confidence in his unusual capacity for high command, that his relief was largely, if not altogether, due to intrigue, on the part of General Butler, aided perhaps by an exaggerated estimate on the part of General Grant of that officer's political importance, which General Smith could easily have defeated had he been on the ground in actual command of the army to which he had been a.s.signed.

But to return to his services at West Point. It was during this year that he greatly widened his knowledge of military history and the art of war. Although far from well, he led the studious life of a scientist, and in the daily companions.h.i.+p of the professors and of Lieutenants Silvey and Holabird, two officers of distinguished talent and learning, he obtained new and broader views of professional subjects. He had early become noted as having an investigating mind which could not be satisfied with superficial knowledge, and for a sound and conservative judgment which gave great weight to his conclusions. He was most deliberate and methodical in his habits of thought, and had an unusually tenacious grip upon the thread of his argument. His manners and movements, while free from every appearance of hurry and excitement, were habitually so well ordered that he was enabled to cover a great deal of ground in a small s.p.a.ce of time.