Miles Vance Smith

In 1860 he was a store clerk in Halletsville, Lavaca County, TX. Age 23, he enlisted at Camp Clark in Guadalupe County as a Drummer in Company D, 4th Texas Infantry on 4 July 1861, was appointed 3rd Corporal by August 1862, and was First Corporal in September.

He was in action with his Company at Fox's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September and was wounded at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was in hospitals in Richmond, VA and on furlough from 8 October to 16 November, but returned to duty by January 1863. He was wounded again, at Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863, and at Chickamauga, GA in September 1863. He was 4th Sergeant by January 1864 and was captured on 7 October 1864 on the Darbytown Road near Richmond, held at Bermuda Hundred, then sent through City Point to Point Lookout, MD by 29 October. He was released on 6 June 1865 after taking an oath of allegiance there.

In 1870 he was raising stock in Caldwell County, TX, next door to his brother, physician Robert L Smith (1833-1907). In 1880 he was a miller at Luling, TX. By 1910 he owned and ran a cotton gin there.

Service information from Davis,1 his Compiled Service Records2 via fold3, and Polley.3 Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census for 1860-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Mary Hutchison Smith (1842-1928) in August 1865 in Lavaca County, TX and they had 14 children between 1866 and 1898.

A photocopy of his Reminiscences of the Civil War is in the Civil War Miscellaneous Collection at the US Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, PA.

03/31/1838; Steen's Creek, Rankin County, MS

06/03/1919; Luling, TX; burial in Luling City Cemetery, Luling, TX