The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1893-04-05
THE LAST OF OUR GENERALS.
Death of General E. Kirby Smith at Sewa-
noe, Tenn.-He Follows Soon After
the Lamented Beauregard.


SEwASEE, Tenn, March 2S.-Gen.
f. Kirby Smith, the last full general OF
the Confederate army, died here to-day
at $50 p. NJ.
For two years Gen. Smiths health
has been declining. Two weeks ago he
was taken sick in New Orleans and was
confined to his bed for five or six days,
but recovered sufficiently to travel and
reported at Sewanee ready for duty
Monday, March 10. Two days after
wards be caught cold. A relapse en-
sued, his condition being complicated
by congestion of the right lung.
Everything in human power was
done to save him, but from the first it
was evident that the chances were
against bis recovery. Once or twice
during temporary periods of semi-con-
sciousness his mind wandered through
past scenes, and be ordered the bat
teries to come up. Early this morning
he became totally unconscious.
His end was very peaceful. His wife
and six of his family were with him.
He died as he lived, bright, strong and
confident in his Christian faith and
hope. One of his very last connected
utteaances was a verse from the 23d
Psalm: Though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death I will
fear no evil, for Thou art with me-"
The event was so sudden and unex-
pected tina. it may possibly prevent the
Southern veterans as body from pay
ing personal tribute to the memory
of the distinguished hero, and DR.. Gail
or said this evening that the probabili-
ties are that there would not be strict
ly military funeral. Dispatches have,
however, been sent to the leading mill
tary men Of the South, preparatory to
arranging for the funeral services
which have been appointed for Friday
at - o'clock. General Kirby Smith
will be buried here in the city ceme-
terry.
Generel Smith was a man of pro-
found learning, whose singularly mod
est, quiet manner gave no suggestion
of the dashing cavalry officer who
won his spurs in 1859 in conflict with
the Comanches on the border under
the S ars and Stripes, and led the ad-
vance under the Stars and Bars with
Braxton Bragg in the Kentucky cam
paign of 1852.
He came of family of soldiers, his
grandfather having fought in the Revo-
lutionary war, and his father having
distinguished himself in the second
war with England. His brother Eph-
rain was a soldier too. He fell in lead
ing a desperate assault an Mexican
battery at Molino del Rey. By one of
the painful condolences Of the war a
son of this brother Ephraim was a COL
onel in the Federal army, who might
any day have met his uncle in deadly
combat. He fell at Corinth in 1862.
Edmund Kirby Smith was born in
St. Augustine, Fla, May lG, 1924. He
was graduated at the United States
Military Academy in 1S45, and served
fifteen years in the United States army
before entering the service Of the Con-
federacy. His rank, when he resigned
his commission in 1861, was that of
major, and be entered the Confederate
army as Lieutenant colonel of caval-
ry. He became brigadier general in
June, 1861, major general in October,
1861, lieutenant general in October,
1862, and general in February, 1864.
He was severely wounded in the bat
tie of Bull Run, but in the 1852 cam
paign he was again at the front and did
brilliant service in East Tennessee and
Kentucky. His most valuable work,
however, was done while be was COM
mender of the Trans-Mississippi de-
partment, to which he was appointed
in February, 1868. The department
comprised Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas
and the Indian Territory. There he
organized a vigorous government and
established a number of enterprises,
the profits on which replenished the
Confederacy's treasury at time of ter
ribie depletion. Not ONLY did he sue
ceed in getting cotton abroad in spite
Of the blockade, but he set up factories
and furnaces, opened mines, made pow
der and castings, and other stores of
which there was at the time pressing
need.
In 1864 be opposed and defeated Gen.
Nathaniel P. Banks in his Red River
campaign. General Smith was the last
general to surrender his forces.
After the war closed he became presi-
dent of the Atlantic and Pacific Tele-
graph Company, but in 1870 he found
more congenial occupation as chancel-
lor of the University of Nashville,
which five years later he resigned for
the professorship of mathematics at the
University of the South, which posi-
tion he held up to the time of his death.
The late Col. Samuel Y. Tupper, OF
Charleston, was a member of Gen.
Smiths personal staff, and he named
one of his sons after his old friend and