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D.C. Smith
(1825 - 1864)
Home State: Minnesota
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 1st Minnesota Infantry
Before Antietam
He went west from New York to Adrian, MI in 1844 and in 1850 was a "daguerrean artist" - a photographer - living with his in-laws and next door to his brother Horace's farm in Hillsdale County, MI. He lived in Roscoe, Il and Beloit, WI in 1855 and 1856, respectively, then moved to Hennepin County, MN. In 1860 was a 35 year old school teacher in Brooklyn, Hennepin, MN, and also served as county commissioner and postmaster at Osseo, MN.
He enrolled and mustered as 2nd Lieutenant of Company D, First Minnesota Infantry in Minneapolis on 29 April 1861 and was promoted to Captain on 8 August 1861.
On the Campaign
He was severely wounded in the left hip action at Antietam on 17 September 1862, the bullet lodging in his pelvis.
The rest of the War
He was disabled for field service by his wound and wrote his Representative H.M. Rice from Minneapolis on 24 December 1862 seeking a position as an Army Paymaster. In January 1863 most of the officers of his regiment signed a petition to President Lincoln recommending him for that position, but it did not happen immediately, and he resigned his commission on 7 October 1863.
He returned to Minnesota and served briefly as State Librarian from 14 January to 30 April 1864, when he was appointed Paymaster and Major, US Volunteers to date from 23 February 1864. He was "killed by guerrillas;" shot near Randolph, TN on 27 October 1864 while aboard the Belle of St Louis, a steamboat on the Mississippi River enroute from Memphis to St Louis. He died of wounds the next day.
References & notes
His service basics from Minnesota in the Civil and Indian Wars 1 and Heitman,2 with details from Letters Received by the Adjutant General, 1861-1870, online via fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1850 & 1860, a bio sketch from the Minnesota State Law Library, and the St. Paul Daily Press of 10 December 1864. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the Minnesota Historical Society.
He married Melissa R. Shepard (later Bradley, 1827-1905) in July 1847 and they had a son Eugene [photographs]. Melissa was Minnesota State Librarian in her own right, the second woman in the post, serving from 1867-1873.
Birth
08/20/1825; Barre, NY
Death
10/28/1864; Randolph, TN; burial in Roscoe Cemetery, Roscoe, IL
1 State of Minnesota, Board of Commissioners, Minnesota in the Civil War and Indian Wars 1861-1865, 2 volumes, St. Paul: Pioneer Press Company, 1890-93, Vol. 1, p. 54 [AotW citation 31838]
2 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, p. 896 [AotW citation 31839]