Special Edition: Charles F. Smith, Teacher of Civil War Generals (April 24, 1862)
On April 24, 1862, Union General Charles Ferguson Smith died on the day after his fifty-fifth birthday in the Cherry Mansion in Savannah, Tennessee. (Built along the banks of the Tennessee River, the Cherry Mansion was the oldest dwelling in Savannah and was the home of William H. Cherry, a Union supporter.) C.F. Smith’s body, weakened from a bout with dysentery, succumbed to the effects of an infection in his leg that resulted from a slip while changing boats on the Tennessee River. William H.L. Wallace, who replaced Smith in command of the Second Division, was also a patient at the Cherry Mansion before his death on April 10th.
Smith, who graduated from West Point in 1825, went on to become an assistant instructor of infantry tactics, adjutant to the superintendent, and commandant of cadets at the military academy. He was awarded three brevet promotions for his heroic actions during the Mexican War, and when the Civil War began he was commanding the Department of Utah. General-in-Chief Winfield Scott called him east to command the Department of Washington (at Fort Washington, Maryland) and, soon after, he was assigned Superintendent of General Recruiting Service for the Regular Army at Fort Columbus.
Despite his thirty-six years of military experience, Smith was outranked by many of his former West Point students. This was due to the vagaries of promotion in the early part of the war. His commander Ulysses S. Grant, who resigned from the Army as a captain in 1854 (due, in part, to excessive drinking), had the support of Illinois Congressman Elihu Washburne which catapulted him to command of the 21st Illinois and garnered him a commission as Brigadier-General of Volunteers (May 17, 1861). Smith, who remained in the Regular Army, languished in administrative positions until John C. Frémont requested he be commissioned a Brigadier-General of Volunteers (August 31, 1861) and transferred to the Western Department to command the District of Western Kentucky. Even Grant acknowledged that “it does not seem quite right for me to give General Smith orders.”
Smith’s untimely demise highlights several long standing mysteries about the battle of Shiloh. After the Union victory at Fort Donelson, Henry Halleck expended a lot of effort to tarnish Grant’s growing military reputation. He spread rumors of Grant’s drinking, complained that Grant disobeyed his orders, and offered command of the Army of the Tennessee to various other generals such as Don Carlos Buell and David Hunter. Halleck even had Grant confined to Fort Henry, leaving command of the expedition down the Tennessee River to Charles F. Smith. In his memoirs, Grant acknowledged that Halleck “unquestionably deemed” Smith “a much fitter officer for the command of all the forces in the military district.” Had Smith survived Shiloh, it is an open question if Halleck would have continued to champion him as a potential commander of the Army of the Tennessee in Grant’s stead.
While Charles F. Smith was in command of the expeditionary force sent down the Tennessee River in March 1862, William T. Sherman was given credit for establishing the Union “base of operations” on a plateau west of the river, with the “forward camps posted two miles inland around a log church called Shiloh Meeting House.” The Union position “resembled a giant cornucopia,” with the mighty Tennessee River at its back preventing any escape. This miscalculation, similar to the mistake made by Felix Zollicoffer at Mill Springs, put the Union army in a precarious position. However, unlike Zollicoffer, Smith was an experienced military professional who should have known better.
It was explained after the battle that the encampments were arranged with regard given to “sanitation, nearness of water and firewood.” In fact, many Union soldiers were suffering from dysentery as a result of using the Tennessee River as “both their toilet and source of drinking water.” General Smith was suffering the effects as was brigade commander Colonel Jesse Hildebrand and Colonel James S. Reardon, 29th Illinois. The shift to the camps around Shiloh Church would have alleviated this concern in the days prior to the battle. In Smith’s obituary published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Smith “died under an insidious disease that was contracted during the Mexican War and was provoked by his recent exposure in the campaign of the West." In addition, George W. Cullum’s Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy asserted that: “Before the end of March the General had to take to his bed, where he was obliged to submit to a severe surgical operation. This, with his debility caused by a cold taken at Donelson, continued harassing exertion, bad climate, supervening erysipelas, and poisonous drugs, completely sapped his vital energy.” Is it possible that Smith was suffering from his illness to such an extent that he allowed Sherman more latitude in choosing the encampment site and neglected to take the proper precautions necessary to avoid a surprise Confederate attack on April 6th?
Henry Halleck issued an Obituary Order on the day of Smith's death. He wrote, "He had been in the service of his country for more than forty years and had passed through all the military grades from Cadet to Major General. He had fought with distinction in nearly all the battles of Mexico and by his gallantry and skill, had gained imperishable laurels at the Siege of Ft. Donelson. He combined the qualities of a faithful officer, an excellent disciplinarian, an able commander and a modest, courteous gentleman. In his death the army has lost one of its brightest ornaments and the country a general whose place it will be difficult to supply.”
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