SMITH
SMITH
forts, he commanded the two batteries of the
C'halmette that it was hoped would stop the
Federal fleet. He was commissioned brigadier-
general April 11, 1862, and was ordered to Vicks-
burg to assume command and strengthen the de-
fences of that place. He arrived May 12, 1862,
and found one regiment, one battalion and three
batteries complete. On May 18, 1862. the advance
of Farragut's fleet arrived from Baton Rouge and
bombarded the works, firing 20.000 charges of
sliot and shell; but although supported by 5.000
troops on land, the twenty-seven ships of Farra-
gut and Porter were unable to effect a landing,
and passed under the bluff and by the batteries.
The Confederate loss was only seven killed and
fifteen wounded; no gun was disabled and no
battery injured. General Smith was assigned to
the command of the 3d military district, depart-
ment of Southern Mississippi and East Louisiana,
June 26, 1862; to the 2d military district, depart-
ment of Mississippi and East Louisiana, Oct. 21,
1862, and was promoted major-general, Nov. 4,
1862. He directed the defences of Chickasaw
Bayou in command of a division which, on Dec.
31, 1862, consisted of eleven regiments of infantry,
six battalions of heavy artillery, one battalion of
cavalry, being largely the brigades of Vaughan,
Barton and S. D. Lee. The Federal loss was
nearly 2,000 killed, wounded and prisoners, and
this was said to be the only defeat experienced
by General Sherman dviring the war. After the
arrival of General Pemberton. Smith's division
occupied the northern lines during the second
siege. He surrendered with the army at Vicks-
burg, July 4, 1863, but at the request of General
Grant, remained in charge of Confederate sick
and wounded until Aug. 1. He was exchanged
about February, 1864, and was assigned to tem-
porary duty as chief of the engineer bureau,
March 9, 1864; and was promoted chief engineer,
Army of Northern Virginia, April 6, 1864. He
established the lines on which all the battles
from the Wilderness to Petersburg were fought.
At the battle of the Wilderness he was ordered
by General Lee to report to General Longstreet,
who had just arrived with the 1st army corps, and
planned and executed the flanking movement
that turned the Federal extreme left, on the Brock
road. On Oct. 19, 1864, he was made chief engi-
neer. Army of Tennessee; and on Jan. 4, 1865,
was ordered to duty as chief engineer of the Mili-
tary division of the West. He retired to Athens,
Ga. , after the war, and was chief engineer of the
Alabama and Tennessee railroad, and in 1866
was elected professor of engineering in the Uni-
versity of Georgia, the chair having been occu-
pied by Charles Phillips until the war closed the
university. He had not assumed the duties of his
office when he died at Rome, Ga., July 29, 1866.
SMITH, Mary Prudence Wells, author, was
born in Attica, N.Y., July oO, 1840; daughter of
Dr. Noah S. and Esther Nims (Coleman) Wells;
granddaughter of Capt. William and Prudence
(May) Wells and of Capt. Thaddeus and Milli-
cent (Newton) Coleman, and a descendant of
Thomas Wells (b, Colchester, England, 1620;
settled in Hartford, Conn., 1636); and of Thomas
Coleman (b. Evesham, England; settled in
Wethersfield, Conn., 1639). She attended the
Greenfield, Mass., high school and Sliss Draper's
Female seminary, Hartford, Conn.. 1858-59; was
assistant teacher at the Greenfield higli school;
and assistant in the Franklin Savings institution,
being the first woman employed in a savings
bank in Massachusetts. She was married, April
14, 1875, to Judge Fayette, son of the Rev. Pre-
served and Tryphena (Goldsbury) Smith, of Cin-
cinnati, Ohio. During Mrs. Smith's twenty-one
years' residence in Cincinnati, she was a member
of the Women's Art Museum association, started
and was for fourteen years president of the
Woman's Alliance Branch in the Unitarian
church, helping to originate the Post Office Mis-
sion; was one of the seven founders of the Cin-
cinnati Women's club, and president of the Home
library for poor children in the Associated
Charities. In 1896 Judge Smith removed to
Greenfield, Mass., where Mrs. Smith resided in
1903. She is the author of the Jollij Good Series,
for children (18 vols., 1875-95); Miss Ellis's Mis-
sion (1886); The Young Puritans of Old Hadley
(1897); The Young Puritans of King Phillip's
War (1898); The Young Puritans in Captivity
(1899); JVliat Women have done in Literature in
the United States since 1649 (1899); The Young
and Old Puritans of Hatfield (1900); Four on a
Farm (1901), and numerous magazine articles
written under the pen name " P. Thorne."
SMITH, Matthew Hale, lecturer and author, was born in Portland, Maine, in 1816; son of the Rev. Elias Smith (q.v.) and Rachel (Thurber) Smith. He was ordained to the Universalist ministry in 1833; became a convert to Unitarian- ism, and was ordained in Maiden, Mass., in 1842, and served as pastor in several churches in Massacliusetts until 1850, when he was admitted to the bar and began practice in New York city. He continued to supply pulpits in various denom- inations, but devoted most of his attention to journalism, contributing a series of articles known as the " Burleigh Letters" to the Boston Journal. He served throughout the civil war as cliaplain of the 12th New York volunteers. He conducted a lecture tour through the principal cities of the United States in 1877, his subjects including: "Old Times and Our Times," "Wit and Humor," " From the Thames to the Tiber." He was married in Boston, Mass., to Mary Adams,
