SMITH, ALBERT RICHARD (1816–1860), English author and public entertainer, was born at Chertsey, Surrey, on the 24th of May 1816. He studied medicine in Paris, and his first literary effort was an account of his life there, which appeared in the Mirror. He gradually relinquished his medical work for light literature. Though a journalist rather than a literary figure, he was one of the most popular men of his time, and a favourite humorist in the vein of humour then in vogue. He was one of the early contributors to Punch and was also a regular contributor to Bentley's Miscellany, in whose pages his first and best book, The Adventures of Mr Ledbury, appeared in 1842. His other books were, Christopher Tadpole (1848), issued in monthly parts, Pottleton's Legacy (1849), and a series of so-called natural histories, The Gent, The Ballet Girl, The Idler upon Town and The Flirt. Albert Smith also wrote extravaganzas and adapted some of Charles Dickens's stories for the stage. He founded and edited a monthly magazine called The Man in the Moon, from 1847 to 1849. In 1851 he ascended Mont Blanc, and the year after produced at the Egyptian Hall the descriptive entertainment, which he called “Mont Blanc,” describing the ascent of the mountain and the Englishman abroad. This success was followed by other entertainments of the kind, among them “China.” Smith married in 1859 a daughter of Robert Keeley, the comedian. He died in Fulham, London, on the 23rd of May 1860. Smith received great help from his brother, Arthur W. W. Smith (1825–1861), who had also been educated for medicine. He managed the entertainments at the Egyptian Hall from 1852 to 1860. He also planned Charles Dickens's readings in 1858, and made arrangements for a second series, but died before they were completed.
SMITH, ALEXANDER (1830–1867), Scottish poet, son of a lace-designer, was born at Kilmarnock on the 31st of December 1830. His parents being too poor to send him to college, he was placed in a linen factory to follow his father's trade of a pattern designer. His early poems appeared in the Glasgow Citizen, in whose editor, James Hedderwick, he found a sympathizing and appreciative friend. A Life Drama and other Poems (1853) was a work of promise, ran through several editions, and gained Smith the appointment of secretary to Edinburgh University in 1854. As a poet he was one of the leading representatives of what was called the “Spasmodic” School, now fallen into oblivion. Smith, P. J. Bailey and Sydney Dobell were satirized by W. E. Aytoun in 1854 in Firmilian: a Spasmodic Tragedy. In the same year Sydney Dobell came to Edinburgh, and an acquaintanceship at once sprang up between the two, which resulted in their collaboration in a book of War Sonnets (1855), inspired by the Crimean War. After publishing City Poems (1857) and Edwin of Deira (1861), a Northumbrian epic poem, Smith turned his attention to prose, and published Dreamthorp: Essays written in the Country (1863) and A Summer in Skye. His last work was an experiment in fiction, Alfred Hagart's Household (1866), which ran first through Good Words. He died on the 5th of January 1867.
A memoir of Smith by P. P. Alexander was prefixed to a volume entitled Last Leaves.
SMITH, ANDREW JACKSON (1815–1897), American soldier, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the 28th of April 1815 and graduated at West Point in 1838. He was engaged on active service on the south-west frontier and in Mexico, and afterwards in Indian warfare in Washington and Oregon territories, becoming first lieutenant in 1845, captain in 1847, and major in 1861. In the latter year, on the outbreak of the Civil War, he became a colonel of volunteer cavalry in the Federal army, rising early in 1862 to the rank of brigadier-general U.S.V., and to the chief command of the cavalry in the Missouri department. Assigned afterwards to the Army of the Tennessee, he took part in the first attack on Vicksburg and the capture of Arkansas Post, and commanded a division of the XIII. corps in the final Vicksburg campaign. Later he led a division of the XVI. corps in the Red River expedition of Gen. N. P. Banks, and received the brevet of colonel for his services at the action of Pleasant Hill. In May 1864 he became lieutenant-colonel U.S.A. and major-general U.S.V., and during the greater part of the year was employed in Missouri against the Confederate general Sterling Price. Thence he was summoned to join forces with G. H. Thomas at Nashville, then threatened by the advance of Gen. J. B. Hood. He bore a conspicuous share in the crowning victory of Nashville (q.v.), after which he commanded the XVI. corps in the final campaign in the South. Just before the close of the war he was breveted brigadier-general U.S.A. for his services at the action of Tupelo, Mississippi, and major-general U.S.A. for Nashville. He resigned his volunteer commission in 1866 and became colonel of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. In 1869, however, he resigned in order to become postmaster of St Louis, where he died on the 30th of January 1897.
SMITH, CHARLES EMORY (1842–1908), American journalist and political leader, was born in Mansfield, Connecticut, on the 18th of February 1842. In 1849 his family removed to Albany, New York, where he attended the public schools and the Albany Academy. He graduated at Union College in 1861, was a recruiting officer on the staff of General John F. Rathbone (1819–1901) in 1861–1862, taught in the Albany Academy in 1862–1865, and was editor of the Albany Express in 1865–1870; joined the staff of the Albany Journal in 1870, and was editor-in-chief of this paper from 1876 to 1880. In 1879–1880 he was a regent of the University of the State of New York. From 1880 until his death he was editor and part proprietor of the Philadelphia Press. He was active as a Republican in state and national politics; was chairman of the Committee on Resolutions of the New York State Republican Conventions from 1874 to 1880 (excepting 1877), and was president of the convention of 1879; and was a delegate to several National Republican Conventions, drafting much of the Republican platforms of 1876 and 1896. In 1890-1892 he was United States minister to Russia, and during that period had charge of distributing among the Russian famine sufferers more than $100,000 in money, and five shiploads of food. He was postmaster-general in the cabinet of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt from April 1898 until January 1902, and did much to develop the rural free delivery system. He died in Philadelphia on the 19th of January 1908.
SMITH, CHARLES FERGUSON (1807–1862), American soldier, graduated from West Point Academy in 1825, and a few years later became an instructor there, rising eventually to be commandant. As a battalion commander he distinguished himself at the Mexican War, at Palo Alto, Resaca, Monterey and Churubusco. He commanded the Red River expedition of 1856, and served under Albert Sidney Johnston in Utah (1857–1860). On the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 he accepted a commission as brigadier-general of Union volunteers, and found himself under the command of Grant, who had been his pupil at West Point. This difficult situation was made easy by Smith's loyalty to his young chief, and the old soldier led his division of raw volunteers with success at Fort Donelson. His ripe experience, dignity, and unselfish character made him Grant's mainstay in the early days. He went up the Tennessee with the first expedition, but at Savannah, Tennessee, met with a serious accident. His senior brigadier led his division at the battle of Shiloh and he died on April 25, 1862. The early close of his career in high command deprived the Union army of one of its best leaders, and his absence was nowhere more felt than on the battlefield of Shiloh, where the Federals paid heavily for the inexperience of their generals. A month before his death he had been made major-general of volunteers.
SMITH, CHARLOTTE (1749–1806), English novelist and poet, eldest daughter of Nicholas Turner of Stoke House, Surrey, was born in London on the 4th of May 1749. She left school when she was twelve years old to enter society. She married in 1765 Benjamin Smith, son of a merchant who was a director of the East India Company. They lived at first with her father-in-law, who thought highly of her business abilities, and wished to keep her with him; but in 1774 Charlotte and her husband went to live in Hampshire. The elder Smith died in 1776, leaving a complicated will, and six years later Benjamin Smith was imprisoned for debt. Charlotte Smith's first publication was Elegiac Sonnets
