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Andrew Jackson Smith

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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ANDREW JACKSON SMITH (1815-1897), American soldier, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of April 1815 and graduated at West Point in 1838. He was engaged on active service on the south-west frontier and in Mexico, and afterwards in Indian warfare in Washington and Oregon territories, becoming first lieutenant in 1845, captain in 1847, and major in 1861. In the latter year, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he became a colonel of volunteer cavalry in the Federal army, rising early in 1862 to the rank of brigadier-general U.S.V., and to the chief command of the cavalry in the Missouri department. Assigned afterwards to the Army of the Tennessee, he took part in the first attack on Vicksburg and the capture of Arkansas Post, and commanded a division of the XIII. corps in the final Vicksburg campaign. Later he led a division of the XVI. corps in the Red River expedition of Gen. N. P. Banks, and received the brevet of colonel for his services at the action of Pleasant Hill. In May 1864 he became lieutenant-colonel U.S.A.

and major-general U.S.V., and during the greater part of the year was employed in Missouri against the Confederate general Sterling Price. Thence he was summoned to join forces with G. H. Thomas at Nashville, then threatened by the advance of Gen. J. B. Hood. He bore a conspicuous share in the crowning victory of Nashville, after which he commanded the XVI. corps in the final campaign in the South. Just before the close of the war he was breveted brigadier-general U.S.A. for his services at the action of Tupelo, Mississippi, and major-general U.S.A. for Nashville. He resigned his volunteer commission in 1866 and became colonel of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. In 1869, however, he resigned in order to become postmaster of St Louis, where he died on the 30th of January 1897.