Brigadier-General Thomas Alfred Smyth (Library of Congress)

Historians have tagged Thomas Alfred Smyth as ‘an unsung Irish hero of the Civil War.’ (1) My goal is to help sing General Smyth’s song for a modern audience.

Born in the tiny village of Ballyhooley in County Cork, Smyth brought to life the classic American-immigrant story with his rise to brevet Major-General by the time of his death in April 1865. The few sources of information about Smyth’s boyhood note that his father was a farmer and Smyth helped him work the family plot until he emigrated in 1854. He had only limited education, but did benefit from travel to Scotland, England and France. (How a poor farmer’s son did so much traveling is one of the mysteries I’m seeking to unravel.)

Once in America, Smyth took the time-honored route of working with a relative to get his start. The relation, an unnamed uncle, worked as a carriage maker in Philadelphia. (2) Like many young men of his era, Smyth craved adventure, so he signed up with Gen. William Walker’s Filibusters and travelled to Nicaragua in 1855 as part of the original band of mercenaries who tromped through the central American jungles in search of fame, fortune and glory.

By 1858, Smyth had returned to Philadelphia to marry Amanda M. Pounder of that city. That year, the couple moved to Wilmington, Delaware, where he plied his trade as a carriage maker. Their only daughter, Emma, is born in Wilmington. While in the Diamond State, Smyth is one of the founders of an Irish militia company known as the ‘National Guards.’ Smyth rises to become a captain of this Wilmington-based outfit.

When Lincoln issues the call for 75,000 volunteers in the spring of 1861, Smyth and his compatriots are ready for action. Because of delays in forming Delaware’s state regiments, Smyth and about 50 of his companions join up with the 24th Pennsylvania Infantry, an all-Irish unit recruited from Philadelphia’s docks and workshops. Smyth and his men spend the first three months of the war with the 24th and then signed on with the First Delaware Infantry Regiment in October 1861.

Smyth stays with that unit through the occupation of Norfolk, the Peninsula campaign, the battle of Antietam and the bloodbath at Fredericksburg, rising to the rank of colonel. He wins acclaim for his coolness under fire at Antietam and his steadfastness as he led the regiment to the killing fields in front of Marye’s Heights in Fredericksburg. He is promoted to brigade command in 1863 and at Gettysburg, his unit is placed along the stone wall during Pickett’s Charge. Smyth gets hit in the face during the engagement and jokes he’d gladly trade his nose for victory.(3) Smyth continues to gain notice for bravery and leadership abilities and, at one point, is tapped to refit and rejuvenate the Army of the Potomac’s Irish Brigade.

High Bridge, Farmville Virginia. Thomas Alfred Smyth led his brigade across this bridge shortly before his mortal wounding. The photo was taken by Irishman Timothy O'Sullivan (Library of Congress)

After leading the Irish Brigade in the battle of the Wilderness, Smyth returns to lead his Second Corps brigade throughout the remainder of the war. (At several times, he was named as interim commander of the Army of Potomac’s Second Division while regular commander Gen. John Gibbon was ill.) After a long delay, Smyth is promoted to brigadier general in October 1864.

His meteoric rise in the Army paralleled his rise in another organization — the Fenian Brotherhood. By late 1864, Smyth has been ‘commissioned’ as the head circle of the Fenian group within the Army of the Potomac and some historians believe that had he lived, Smyth would have been the general to lead the Fenian invasions of Canada in 1866 and 1867. He was elected to the Fenian Counsel in January 1865, but withdrew from the board due to the press of his military duties a month later.

Smyth was wounded by a sniper at an engagement near Farmville, Virginia on April 7, 1865. He died two days later, just hours before Lee signs the surrender papers at Appomattox. Smyth is the last general to die during active hostilities in the Civil War. He was 33.

After spending more than a year researching Smyth’s life, I’ve found there are major gaps in the historical record. Through the help of friends and relatives in Ireland, I’ve launched a search for any Smyth family records and have come up empty. The same is true for his pre-Civil War life in Philadelphia and Wilmington. (We can’t even identify the uncle he worked with in the city of Brotherly Love or where he worked in Wilmington.) I’ve also found only traces of his connections to the Fenians (from scant references in his diaries for 1864 and 1865 and other sources.)

I write at the suggestion of Damian Shiels (whose wise counsel has helped guide my research efforts in Ireland) to ask if any readers of this site have material on Smyth or his family. If so, I’d be eternally grateful if they’d share it with me. I can be reached by phone in the U.S. at (302) 494-4869 or by email at jvpfeeley@comcast.net.

References

(1) Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge, La., Louisiana State University Press, 1964. Print.

(2) Conyngham, David Power, and Lawrence Frederick Kohl. The Irish Brigade and Its Campaigns. New York, Fordham UP, 1994. Print.

(3) Maull, David W. The Life and Military Services of the Late Brigadier General Thomas A. Smyth. DE: H. & E.F. James, Printers, 1870. Print

On 6th April 1865 Brigadier-General Smyth wrote in his diary: ‘orders to march at 5 A.M. and at 6 o’clock to assault the enemy’s works’. It was to be his final entry. His brigade was part of the Federal II Corps under Major-General Humphreys, and the assault was to be against Confederate positions at High Bridge over the Appomattox River, Virginia. On the morning of the 7th April, as the rebels desperately attempted to fire the bridge, the II Corps attacked and managed to capture the structure substantively intact. This allowed a direct pursuit of the Confederate’s across the river in the direction of Farmville, where crucial rations were being kept for the beleaguered Army of Northern Virginia.

Brigadier-General Smyth’s brigade led the advance, coming under artillery and sharpshooter fire a short distance from Farmville. As the formation halted in the rain, Smyth went to assess the situation with his staff. He had a habit of riding close to the action, and this occasion was no different. At around 11 o’clock he approached his skirmish line as an irregular fire was being kept up between the opposing forces. Suddenly the General slumped to the right side of his horse, with his staff quickly discovering he had been hit by a sharpshooter. He was removed on a stretcher to a nearby farmhouse where the Corps Hospital was positioned. Smyth had been shot in the left side of the face, with the ball removing a tooth on its passage through to his neck, where it drove a fragment of cervical vertebra through his spinal cord, paralysing him.

Smyth had a conversation with his surgeon about his prospects for survival, which he was told were slight. To this he remarked ‘now, Doctor, you know I am no coward, and that I am not afraid to die’. On the 8th April it was decided to take him by ambulance to Burkesville Station, a journey of some 12 miles. However, with some 2 miles still to go the General began to visibly fail, and he was instead taken to the house of Colonel Burke. Smyth told the men  to stop there, as it was all over for him and there was no use in going any further. He was taken inside and thanked the Burke’s for their hospitality. At 4 o’clock on the morning of 9th April 1865 Brigadier-General Thomas Alfred Smyth died. Less than twelve hours later Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House; the farmer’s son from Cork was to be the last Union General killed during the American Civil War. He is buried with his wife at Wilmington and Brandywine Cemetery, Wilmington, Delaware.

References

Maull, David W. 1870. The Life and Military Services of the Late Brigadier General Thomas A. Smyth

Warner, Ezra J. 1964. Generals in Blue