The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-03-29
KIRBY SMITH is DEAD.
The Last of the Full Generals of
the Confederate Army.
TURNED THE TIDE At BULL RUN.
He Drove Gen. Banks Out OF TexaS,
and Organised . New Empire in
the Southwest.

sxwANRE, Tenn. March 2a-Gsn. E. Kirby
Smith, professor Of mathematics in the Univsr-
sity of the South since 1875 died here this after
noon. For two years his health had been de-
clining Two weeks ago he was taken i'll in
New Orleans, and congestion OF tho lungs.
which followed. carried him Of. Once or twice
during temporary periods of seniconscious-
through past scenes and he ordered his batteries
to come up Early this morning he became
totally unconscious. His end was very peace
full His wife and six OF the family were with
him.
Edmund Kirby Smith was born at St Au-
gustlne. Fla. May 16. 1924 He graduated from
West Point in ls45 and was assigned to the Sec
ond infantry. During the war with Mexico he
was attached to SCOTS command, and fought at
Cerro Gordo and Contreras, where he was
brevetted for gallantry. He was afterwards
transferred to the cavalry and was assistant pro-
lessor OF mathematics at West Point until 1855
As captain OF the Twentysecond cavalry he
served on the frontier and was wounded in an
engagement with the Comanches in 1884, Two
years later he received the thanks of the Texas
legislature for his campaigns against the In
oians. When Florida seeded Smith resigned
his commission and entered the Confederate
army with the rank OF lieutenant colonel of
cavalry. On June Z, 1861. he was raised to
the rank of brigadier general aud took part
In the battle Of Bull Run, where he was severely
wounded. In consequence of his conduct in
this battle he was raised to the rank Of major
general In 1862 he was transferred 10 the West
and led the advance of Bragg in his Kentucky
campaign. At Richmond, Ky, he fought and
defeated Gen. William Nelson, and in 1868 he
was placed in command of the trans Missis-
sippi department He commanded against
Banks in his disastrous Red river campaign;
after Lees surrender was raised to the rank of
general. and surrendered at Baton Rouge in
May, 1868 After the war he was president OF
the Atlantic & Pacific Telegraph Company.
later accepted the presidency of the University
OF Nashville, and in 1875 was made professor of
mathematics in the University of the South.
Comparatively little is known of the immense
operations Of Gen. Smith In the trans Missis-
elppi department Like Napoleon, in Egypt. he
had to construct q system of society. He sent
cotton TO Europe and brought back machinery
with which to develop the resources of the
country upon which his operations had to rely
for supplies Furnaces and factories were built,
mines were opened a1d a self-sustaining society
was built up which, but for the remot eness of
the larger armies of Lee and Johnston. would
have enabled them to protract the war much
longer, when their immediate environment was
stripped by the foraging parties.
1t was Gen. Smith who turned the tide of
battle at Manassas Junction the first time Just
at the time when, IS Gen. Johnston says,
neither side could have held out much longer
Coming up In a cloud of dust Genl. Smiths
forces were at first hidden from view and for
few moments the Federals thought the advanc-
Ing troops were reinforcements brought up by
Patterson. who had been sent to cut off rein
forcements from the Confederates.
In western North Carolina Gen. Smith was
inf l nan tvn f lond h;~e
against the Federal army in which his Brother,
Col Joseph Kirby Smith. was fighting. and it
was In the battle OF COrinth that the latter fell
Gen. Smith was a soldier by right of heredity.
His father and grandfather were soldiers before
him, his grandfather in the Revolutionary war
and his father In the war of 1872 He was one
of the few Confederate generals who enjoyed
the confidence OF President jeff Davis, and he
was the last general to surrender. He used to
boast that he was the "only man alive who
fought in every battle of the Mexican war"
Once he was shot through the left groin by a
Comanche arrow in Texas and he himself
pulled out the arrow and rode to the surgeons
tent. He always insisted that his rank of gen.
eral. often disputed, was full and not tenn DO
rary. like that of Hood. At the first battle of
Bull Run mimic ball passed through him from
one shoulder to the other. They left him for
dead. but finally took him off the field. young
woman nursed him back to life and he married
her.
The New Orleans Times Democrat thus de-
scribed Gen. Smith as he appeared recently in
New Orleans at the funeral of his friend, Gen.
Beauregard:
A picture can tell nothing OF the lines OF the
face, the fash Of the eye, the tones of the voice
the individuality OF the man. Picture, if you
can, an aged, white. haired man, lean and grace
through his dark eyes seems to have been made
but the warmer and brighter for the SHOWS
which cove. his head and his beard. He IL not
tall, only something above the middle height
yet his manner is such that he seems much
taller. The thick dark curs of youth no longer
cluster about his brow: a few struggling white
But on the sides and at the back of the head
the thick hair stiii grows long and soft and
white as the first strands that burst
from the island cotton. But 1t is his
long beard, white, too as the driven snow
ana sweep;ng sheer over his dark coat front,
that hrst attracts attention. This 10 the more
noticeable by reason of the contrast with his
sober habit. He is dressed entirely in soft black
cloth: his collar il of the old-fashioued rolling
KIND. caught together over the Immaculate
white shirt front, with plain black eravat
There are wrinkles on his face-yet they should
not be called wrinkles; better say they are the
lines OF determination, of character, OF achieve
inent. But they are not hard lines all OF them.
None can smile sweeter than Gen. Kirby smith;
ana when he does so he always pushes his
spectsces back from his eyes and let's the m rest
on his forehead, and then smiles with such ex-
Sessase Boou nature 6uu COutaXlOn that IL 10
quite impossible to refrain from joining him.
He can laugh heartily, too, in the
same deep voice - melowed and soft.
ened somewhat with years - in which
he speaks Il 10 scarcely noticeable
beneath bis white mustachios, but when no
smiles or laughs you can see that his front
teeth are very close and strong, and you cannot
help thinking that they are teeth that could be
set very hard indeed When he puts on his hat
he wears It somewhat over his eyes, and as it 10
Q soft black one he can pull il down very far
behind and then turn down the brim in 'front.'
mis- Is precisely what he generally does he
walks along the street About the only other
Smith would be the little badge, in form and
color of Confederate ensign, which he always
wears on the lett lapel of his coat. This il Gen.
Kirby smith, with no attempt at desert ptiou of
the magnificent ar of gentility or the gentle
ness aud courtesy OF manner, which are the
very essences of his nature
Miss Anna NJ. Fences Death.
FAIRHAvEN, March 2S-Tspeeial. Miss Annie
NJ. Pence. who died suddenly at Seattle last
evening, was one of the most popular young
ladies in this city, which had been her home
for many years. For the past i've years she had
been a eopyist in the county auditors Office
having commenced work there when Hug h
Eldridge, con OF the late Capt Eldridge. was
auditor. She was at one time engaged to be
married 20 him, but the engagement was
broken. At the time OF her death she was en-
gagged TO ", II. Hoffman, clerk OF the board of
county m SSH nd ha "A ,at