Edmund Kirby-Smith attended Hallowell School in Virginia.
College/University
Gallery of Edmund Kirby-Smith
West Point, New York, United States
Edmund Kirby-Smith entered the Academy in 1841 and was graduated four years later, having been a cadet at the period during which the majority of West Point-trained general officers of both the Union and the Confederate armies received their preparation.
Edmund Kirby-Smith entered the Academy in 1841 and was graduated four years later, having been a cadet at the period during which the majority of West Point-trained general officers of both the Union and the Confederate armies received their preparation.
Edmund Kirby-Smith was an American soldier and educator. He started his military career as the second lieutenant in the 5th U. S. Infantry and rose to the rank of General in Confederates States Army in 1864. After the war, he served as president of the University of Nashville and professor of mathematics at the University of the S.
Background
Edmund Kirby-Smith was born on May 16, 1824, in St. Augustine, Florida, United States. His father, Joseph Lee Smith, a native of Connecticut, had a distinguished career as a soldier in the War of 1812, as a lawyer, and as a judge. He married Frances Marvin Kirby, daughter of Ephraim Kirby of Litchfield, Connecticut, and gave her surname to each of their children. After the death of an older brother, Ephraim Kirby-Smith, in the Mexican War, Edmund, until that time known as Edmund K. Smith, began to use his full name, and a generation later the family name had become Kirby-Smith.
Education
Of warrior stock on both sides of his house, Edmund Kirby-Smith early chose a military career. In 1836 he went to Alexandria to be prepared for the United States Military Academy by Benjamin Hallowell at Hallowell School. He entered the Academy in 1841 and was graduated four years later, having been a cadet at the period during which the majority of West Point-trained general officers of both the Union and the Confederate armies received their preparation.
In 1845 Edmund Kirby-Smith was assigned to the 5th Infantry as a brevet second lieutenant and took part in the war with Mexico, first under Taylor and later under Scott, participating in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, Monterey, Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec. He was brevetted for gallantry at Cerro Gordo and at Contreras.
After the war, he was stationed at Jefferson Barracks, and in 1849 became an assistant professor of mathematics at West Point. He rejoined his regiment in 1852 and served on the frontier for three years, during which time he was in command of the military escort for the Mexican Boundary Commission, and was himself botanist of the expedition. His report of his observations was published by the Smithsonian Institution. In 1855 he was promoted to captain, and assigned to the famous 2nd Cavalry, which was at once sent to Texas, where at frequent intervals during the next few years it was operating against hostile Indians.
Kirby-Smith exulted in life, both as a soldier in active service and as an ardent hunter in a sportsman's paradise. In 1858, on leave, he spent several months in Europe, touring England, Wales, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy. Upon his return, he rejoined his regiment, then in New Mexico on the Wichita Expedition, and was wounded at the battle of Nescatunga, June 13, 1859. For some months after the battle, he commanded the expedition. Later he was in command of the regiment, stationed for a time at Camp Cooper, and in 1860 he was promoted to major. The secession of Florida found him fully decided as to his own course, and he resigned from the army on March 3, 1861. Before resigning, however, he had declined to surrender Camp Colorado, then under his command, to the Texas militia under General McCulloch, and had expressed his readiness to fight to hold it.
Returning to Florida, he was at once commissioned colonel of cavalry and sent to Lynchburg to organize, muster into service, and equip the regiments as they arrived in Virginia. He was chief of staff to Joseph E. Johnston at Harper's Ferry, aided in organizing the army of the Shenandoah, and, promoted to brigadier-general in June, was placed in command of the 4th Brigade of that army. He was severely wounded at Manassas, where he had a part in turning the tide of battle in favor of the Confederates. Later he was promoted major-general and placed in command of a division of Beauregard's army.
Early in 1862, he was given command of the department of East Tennessee, Kentucky, North Georgia, and western North Carolina. In June, in order to recover the Cumberland Gap, and in cooperation with Bragg to crush the Federal force under Buell and recover Nashville, he invaded Kentucky, fought and won the battle of Richmond, cleared the Gap of Federal troops, and occupied Lexington, threatening Cincinnati. He withdrew only after Bragg's retirement. The Confederate Congress thanked him, and in October he was promoted lieutenant-general. Disgusted with Bragg, he asked that his own command be detached, but this request was refused.
In January 1863 he was ordered to Richmond to assist in reorganizing the army and in February was placed in command of the Trans-Mississippi Department, consisting of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Indian Territory. Cut off from the East after the fall of Vicksburg, he became the virtual civil and military ruler of the whole region, which wags now called "Kirby-Smithdom." At once he set out to learn the resources of the country. Such communication as he had with Richmond was through the blockade, so he usually acted upon his own responsibility, sending great quantities of cotton abroad and selling it at high prices, bringing in machinery for factories and shops. Untouched by Federal troops, Texas produced great crops of grain and huge quantities of meat for supplying the rest of the department. The only military movement of importance was the Federal expedition under Banks which Kirby-Smith repulsed at Mansfield on April 8, 1864.
In February 1864 he had been commissioned general. On June 2, 1865, he surrendered the last military force of the Confederacy. After the surrender, Kirby-Smith went into Mexico and thence to Cuba. A plan to settle in Mexico was soon abandoned, and in November he returned to the United States. For a brief period, he was president of an insurance company and of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company. He was an active layman in the Protestant Episcopal church, and longed to enter the ministry, but deciding, finally, that he was too old to be ordained, he turned to teach and established a short-lived military school in Kentucky. In 1870 he became president of the University of Nashville, resigning in 1875 to accept the professorship of mathematics at the University of the South, where he taught happily and with distinction for eighteen years. He contributed an article on "The Defense of the Red River" to Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.