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.