Giles Alexander Smith

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Script error: No such module "Infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Giles Alexander Smith (September 29, 1829 – November 8, 1876), was a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Biography

File:20-13-231-smith.jpg
Bust of Smith by Solon Borglum at Vicksburg National Military Park, 1913

Smith was born in Jefferson County, New York. When he was 18, he moved to southwestern Ohio, and for a decade engaged in business in Cincinnati. In the late 1850s, he moved to Bloomington, Illinois, where he was proprietor of a hotel.

At the beginning of the Civil War, he joined the 8th Missouri Infantry Regiment, in which he became a captain. He took part in the capture of Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, and the operations against Corinth, becoming, later in 1862, colonel of a regiment which he led at Chickasaw Bayou. After the final campaign against Vicksburg, on August 4, 1863 he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers to rank from August 4, 1863.[1][2] He was wounded at the Third Battle of Chattanooga. He took part in the Atlanta Campaign, the March to the Sea and the Carolinas Campaign.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". He was appointed to the rank of major general of volunteers on November 24, 1865, the last one based on seniority for the Civil War.[3]

His brother Morgan Lewis Smith was a Union Army brigadier general of volunteers.[4]

File:Giles Alexander Smith - Brady-Handy.jpg
Photograph from the Brady-Handy collection

After the war, Smith declined the offer of a colonelcy in the Regular Army.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". He was mustered out of the volunteers on February 1, 1866.[5] He was subsequently engaged in Illinois politics, retiring from public life in 1872.Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Smith was an Illinois delegate to the Republican National Convention. He moved to California in 1874 in a futile attempt to improve his health, but returned to Illinois two months before his death. He died at Bloomington, Illinois, and was buried in Bloomington Cemetery.[6]

See also

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Notes

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  1. Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. Template:ISBN. p. 728.
  2. President Lincoln sent the nomination of Smith's appointment to the U.S. Senate on December 31, 1863 and the Senate confirmed the appointment on April 1, 1864. Eicher, 2001, p. 728.
  3. President Andrew Johnson nominated Smith for the appointment on January 23, 1866 and the U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on February 23, 1866. Eicher, 2001, p. 705.
  4. Eicher, 2001, p. 498.
  5. Eicher, 2001, p. 705.
  6. Eicher, 2001, p. 495.

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References

  • Wikisource This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainScript error: No such module "template wrapper".
  • Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. Template:ISBN.