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Edmund Kirby Smith
Biography (Written and Submitted by Mr. Gabe Weaver)
General Edmund Kirby Smith was born in St. Augustine,
Florida on May 16, 1824.
He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1845. He
joined the Confederate Army in 1861, rising from the rank of Lieutenant
Colonel to Major General that same year. He first served under
General Joseph
E. Johnston in the Shenandoah as his Chief of Staff. By June he was given the
command of a brigade that he led at the Battle
of First Manassas. He was severely wounded
and had to miss over two months, but he would return to command a division
during the winter of 1861-62.
General Smith was transferred to eastern Tennessee before the
Spring
campaign had begun. He was given command of the troops and Department of
Tennessee, and he helped with General Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky,
defeating a Union force at Richmond and occupying Lexington during September
1862. General Smith was promoted to Lieutenant General and given a Corps in
General Bragg's Army of Tennessee,
but only for a short time. In January 1863 he was given the command of the
whole Trans-Mississippi west, Arkansas, western Louisiana, and Texas region. |
General
Edmund Kirby Smith
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Once
Grant took
Vicksburg, General Smith was
cut off from the rest of the Confederacy. General Smith tried to get supplies
and men across the Mississippi to the rest of the Confederate Army but U.S.
Naval blockades allowed little to get through. Smith would hold out for
another year repelling attacks by Federal forces led by
Nathaniel Banks.
After this failed Union attack, there were no other major operations by
either side, only Confederate guerillas such as
Quantrill and Armstrong
who would make raids on Union outposts. General Smith surrendered his forces on
May 26, 1865. Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith died on March 28,1893 in
Sewanee, Tennessee. Many thanks to Mr. Gabe Weaver for Writing and Submitting this Biography. |
