Career
He was "a longtime invalid" following a broken leg and "was often confined to a special wagon that was pulled about town by slave.". His diaries give insight on the Southern life during the American Civil War. Selections from his diary appeared in a Library of Congress exhibit, "The Civil War in America", from 2012-2013, and were reprinted in Harper"s Magazine.
Started in June 1860, the diaries "reflect the uncertainties faced by those in the path of Sherman"s army" in late 1864 The son of John Jay and Mary Gresham, he is interred in Macon, Georgia in the Rose Hill Cemetery, Magnolia Section.
His father was "twice mayor". His mother, (née Mary Baxter 1822), is the sister of Sallie Bird.
Thus he is briefly mentioned in correspondence kept in the Baxter-Bird-Smith Family Papers of the University of Georgia Libraries. Additional Sources Images.
