George Wallace Smith

In 1860 he was a 37 year old shoemaker in Natick, MA. He enlisted as a Private in Company H, 13th Massachusetts Infantry in June 1861.

He was reported missing in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was captured at Fredericksburg, VA on 13 December 1862 and was held in Libby Prison in Richmond, VA into January 1863. He was wounded in the left forearm in action at Gettysburg, PA on 1 July 1863, his arm was amputated, and he was discharged for disability at the Mulberry Street US Army Hospital in Harrisburg, PA on 9 October 1863.

In 1865 he was a "disabled soldier" in Natick, Middlesex County, MA. In 1870 he was Inspector of Customs in Natick, and in 1880 a US Messenger there.

Service information from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 via fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, at least one of whom has him as George Wellington Smith, the US Census of 1860-1880, and the Massachusetts State Census of 1865. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Betsy Foster Gay (1831-1882) in February 1848 and they had 6 children; their second was son Wallace Clotaire Smith (1851-1923).

A small carving he made while at Libby Prison is in the collection of the American Civil War Museum in Richmond.

12/25/1822; Philadelphia, PA

1891