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R.S. Smith
(c. 1836 - 1862)
Home State: Georgia
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 4th Georgia Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
Son of wealthy doctor and planter Nathaniel Newton Smith (1799-1868), in 1860 he was a 24 year old merchant living with his father and younger sister (and 36 slaves) at La Grange in Troup County, GA. He enrolled there as Captain of Company B, 4th Georgia Infantry on 26 April 1862 and was promoted to Major of the Regiment on 22 May.
On the Campaign
He was killed while leading his regiment in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862. He had replaced Colonel Doles in command after that officer took over the brigade.
The rest of the War
His father Nathaniel filed for his final pay of $235 in January 1863, which was paid in February 1864.
After the War
He was originally buried near the battlefield "in Capt. David Smith's Orchard," and reinterred at the Washington Confederate Cemetery, probably about 1871.
References & notes
Basic service information and his photograph from Thomas,1 who says he was killed outright at Sharpsburg, with details from Henderson2 and his Compiled Service Records,3 online from fold3. Burial information from the Bowie List, online courtesy of WHILBR. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860.
Birth
c. 1836 in GA
Death
09/17/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Washington Confederate Cemetery, Hagerstown, MD
1 Thomas, Henry Walter, History of the Doles-Cook Brigade, Atlanta: Franklin Printing & Publishing Co., 1903, pg. 107 [AotW citation 2592]
2 Henderson, Lilian, compiler, Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865, 6 vols., Hapeville (GA): Longino & Porter, 1959-1964 [AotW citation 31854]
3 US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 31855]