Smith was born on April 24, 1807,^[1] in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Samuel B. Smith and Margaret Ferguson. His paternal grandfather was the Presbyterian minister John Blair Smith.^[2] He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1825.^[3]

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Artillery and served at Fort Delaware for two years and at Augusta Arsenal in Georgia from 1827 to 1829.^[4] He returned to the military academy in 1829 and served as an instructor of tactics under Ethan A. Hitchcock.^[5] He was appointed Commandant of Cadets as a first lieutenant,^[3] and served in that position from 1838 to 1843.

As an artillery battalion commander, he distinguished himself in the Mexican–American War^[3] and served under both Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott at the Battle of Palo Alto, the Battle of Resaca de la Palma, the Battle of Monterrey, and the Battle of 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.^[1] He was an original member of the Aztec Club of 1847.^[6]

He commanded the Red River Expedition (1856) into the future State of Minnesota in 1856–57, and served under Albert Sidney Johnston in Utah (1857–60),^[3] commanding the Department of Utah himself from 1860 to 1861.^[1]

Civil War edit

After the outbreak of the war, Smith briefly led the Department of Washington (at Fort Washington, Maryland). Through the summer of 1861, he served on recruiting duty in New York. On August 31, 1861, he was commissioned a brigadier general of volunteers and on September 9, 1861, as colonel of the 3rd Regular Infantry.^[1] He was transferred to the Western Theater and given command of the Western District of Kentucky.^[7] He served as a division commander in the Department of the Missouri under Brigadier General 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.^[8]

He led his division in the attack on the Confederate right flank at the Battle of Fort Donelson.^[3] His troops fought until nightfall and pushed back the 30th Tennessee Infantry. His troops held the captured terrain which soon forced the Confederate troops to discuss terms of surrender.^[9]

Smith's experience, dignity, and unselfish character made him Grant's mainstay in the early days of the war.^[3] When theater commander Major General Henry Halleck became distrustful and perhaps envious of Grant, he briefly relieved him of field command of the Army's expedition up the Tennessee River toward Corinth, Mississippi, and gave that responsibility to Smith. However, Halleck soon restored Grant to field command (intervention by President Abraham Lincoln may have been a factor).^[a] Smith suffered a serious leg injury while jumping into a rowboat that forced him to miss the Battle of Shiloh where his experience was sorely missed.^[10]

Smith died on April 25, 1862, at Savannah, Tennessee,^[11] from infection of the leg injury and subsequent dysentery.^[1] He was interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.^[12]

The untimely death of Smith forced Grant to partner with William Tecumseh Sherman and build an alliance that would eventually win the war.^[13]

Smith married Francis Mactier on March 24, 1840.^[14]

Three forts were named in his honor. The first Fort C. F. Smith was built in 1863 as part of the perimeter defenses of Washington, D.C. during the American Civil War.^[15] A second Fort C. F. Smith was located at the Bighorn River crossing of the Bozeman Trail in the Montana Territory during Red Cloud's War.^[16] The third Fort C.F. Smith was built as part of the Civil War defenses of Bowling Green, Kentucky.^[17]

• Cadet, United States Military Academy - 1 July 1820
• 2nd Lieutenant, 2nd Artillery - 1 July 1825
• 1st Lieutenant, 2nd Artillery - 30 May 1832
• Captain, 2nd Artillery - 7 July 1838^[18]
• Brevet Major - 9 May 1846
• Brevet Lieutenant Colonel - 23 September 1846
• Brevet Colonel - 20 August 1847
• Major, 1st Artillery - 25 November 1854
• Lieutenant Colonel, 10th Infantry - 3 March 1855
• Colonel, 3rd Infantry - 9 September 1861
• Brigadier General, Volunteers - 31 August 1861
• Major General, Volunteers - 21 March 1862
• Died - 25 April 1862

• List of American Civil War generals (Union)

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Brinton, John H. (1914). Personal Memoirs of John H. Brinton, Major and Surgeon U.S.V. 1861-1865. The Neale Publishing Company.
• Gott, Kendall D. (2003). Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry–Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862. Stackpole Books. ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
• Mesch, Allen H. (2003). Teacher of Civil War Generals - Major General Charles Ferguson Smith, Soldier and West Point Commandant. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0-7864-9834-5.
• Nevin, David (1983), The Road to Shiloh: Early Battles in the West, Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, ISBN 0-8094-4716-9
• Smith, Jean Edward (2001), Grant, New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-684-84927-5

Attribution

•   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Smith, Charles Ferguson". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 259.

• Cunningham, O. Edward (2007), Joiner, Gary; Smith, Timothy (eds.), Shiloh and the Western Campaign of 1862, New York: Savas Beatie, ISBN 978-1-932714-27-2
• Eicher, John H.; Eicher, David J. (2001), Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3
• Robertson, James I. Jr. (February 1986), Civil War Times: 25 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

• Minnesota Historical Society account of the Red River expedition