Charles Ferguson Smith

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Charles Ferguson Smith (April 24, 1807 – April 25, 1862) was a career U.S. Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War.

Smith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of an army surgeon. 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-American War, serving under both Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, at Palo Alto, Resaca, Monterrey, and Churubusco. He received brevet promotions from major through colonel for his service in these battles and ended the war as a lieutenant colonel in the regular army. In Mexico City, he was in charge of the police guard from the end of the war until 1848. He commanded the Red River expedition in Minnesota of 1856–57, and served under Albert Sidney Johnston in Utah (1857–60), commanding the Department of Utah himself from 1860 to 1861, and the Department of Washington (at Fort Washington, Maryland) very briefly at the start of the Civil War.

After the outbreak of the war in 1861, Smith served on recruiting duty as commander of Fort Columbus, New York. He was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers (August 31, 1861), and as colonel in the regular army, commanding the 3rd U.S. Infantry regiment, as of September 9. He was soon transferred to the Western Theater and became a division commander in the Department of the Missouri under Brig. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, who had been one of his pupils at West Point. This potentially awkward situation was eased by Smith's loyalty to his young chief.

The old soldier led his division of raw volunteers with success at the Battle of Fort Donelson in February 1862. During the attack on the Confederate right flank, which he led personally, he saw some of his men waver. He yelled to them, "Damn you, gentlemen, I see skulkers! I'll have none here! Come on, you volunteers, come on! This is your chance! You volunteered to be killed for love of country, and now you can be!"

Smith's experience, dignity, and unselfish character made him Grant's mainstay in the early days of the war. When theater commander Major General Henry W. Halleck became distrustful and jealous of Grant, he effectively relieved him of command and assigned Smith the responsibility of leading the Army's expedition up the Tennessee River toward Corinth, Mississippi. Intervention by President Abraham Lincoln eventually restored Grant to command, but first, at Savannah, Tennessee, Smith met with an accident while jumping into a rowboat that seriously injured his leg, forcing him out of field duty and making Halleck's action moot. 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.

Fort C. F. Smith in the Powder River Country in the Montana Territory was named in his honor.

[edit] References

Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
Robertson Jr., James I., article in Civil War Times, February 1986, p. 25.
Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.