Smith, William Farrar

Life Span
to
Dickinson Connection
Led troops who defended Carlisle 1863 from second confederate attack and shelling
    Full name
    William Farrar Smith
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Spouses
    1
    No. of Children
    5
    Family
    Ashbel Smith (father), Sarah Butler (mother), Sarah Wood Lyon (wife, 1859)
    Education
    West Point (US Military Academy)
    Occupation
    Military
    Businessman
    Educator
    Writer or Artist
    Other
    Other Occupation
    Civil Engineer
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Military
    US military (Pre-Civil War)
    Union Army
    US military (Post-Civil War)
    Marital status in 1860
    Married

    William Farrar Smith (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    At the outbreak of the Civil War, Smith was commissioned colonel of the Third Vermont Volunteers; he fought at First Bull Run (First Manassas) on the staff of General Irvin McDowell. On 13 August 1861 he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers and given command of the Second Division, VI Corps, Army of the Potomac. Participating in the Peninsula campaign of spring 1862, he led his command in the battle of Williamsburg and later in the Seven Days' battles around Richmond. For his services protecting the crossing of White Oak Swamp, he was brevetted lieutenant colonel in the regular army in June. A month later (4 July) he became a major general of volunteers and was brevetted colonel in the regular army for his service at the battle of Antietam.
    Chris Calkins, "Smith, William Farrar," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00728.html.
    How to Cite This Page: "Smith, William Farrar," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/17310.