Orland Smith Orland Smith ( May 2 , 1825 – October 3 , 1903 ) was a railroad executive and a brigade commander in the Union Army during the American Civil War . In 1864 , he led a spirited bayonet charge during the Battle of Wauhatchie that took a significant Confederate position on a hill that now bears his name . Early life and career . Smith was born in New England in Lewiston , Maine . He was educated in the local schools and became a railroad agent , serving as station manager at Lewiston until 1852 when he moved to Ohio . He became an official of the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad and settled in Chillicothe , Ohio . When the railroad fell into financial difficulties , he was appointed receiver . Smith was a lieutenant and commander of a militia company in the late 1850s , the " Chillicothe Greys . " Civil War service . With the outbreak of the Civil War , Smith joined the Union army and became the colonel of the 73rd Ohio Infantry , a regiment that was raised in Chillicothe in November 1861 and trained at nearby Camp Logan . Among his volunteer soldiers was Pvt . George Nixon III , the great - grandfather of future President Richard Nixon . Smith and his regiment saw action in western Virginia , fighting at the Battle of McDowell and the Battle of Cross Keys . During the late summer , as a part of the Army of Virginia , the 73rd OVI fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run near Manassas , Virginia . Smith assumed brigade command in the XI Corps on October 25 , 1862 , but he did not participate in the Battle of Chancellorsville . He returned to his command shortly before the Gettysburg Campaign , after Brig . Gen . Francis C . Barlow , who had led the brigade at Chancellorsville , was given command of the 1st Division on May 24 , 1863 . Smith ' s men held Cemetery Hill on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg at the orders of MG Oliver O . Howard , and provided an anchor for the retreating Federal soldiers . On the second day , three of Smith ' s regiments were engaged in heavy skirmishing in front of Cemetery Hill , and the 33rd Massachusetts , deployed between East Cemetery Hill and a knoll on the McKnight farm , helped repulse an evening attack by Col . Isaac E . Avery ' s North Carolina brigade . Smith ' s Brigade was sent to the Western Theater in the autumn of 1863 along with the rest of the XI Corps . During the Chattanooga Campaign , Smith led his brigade in the Army of the Cumberland in a successful bayonet assault up a steep hill that now bears his name ( Smith ' s Hill ) during the Battle of Wauhatchie . In the army reorganization later that year , his brigade was disbanded and Smith returned on January 3 , 1864 to the command of the 73rd OVI . He resigned his colonelcy on February 17 , 1864 . In the omnibus promotions at the close of the Civil War , Smith was appointed a brevet brigadier general dating from March 13 , 1865 . Postbellum career . After the war , he returned to his career as a railroad officer and became President of the Cincinnati , Washington and Baltimore Railroad and later , First Vice President of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad , with his office in Baltimore , Maryland . From 1884 to 1899 he was President of the Columbus and Cincinnati Midland Railroad . Smith died in Chicago , Illinois . He is buried in Green Lawn Cemetery in Columbus , Ohio . See also . GPS for grave : 39 . 9383 , - 83 . 035 Section 43 , lot 46 , grave 3