Rash's Surname Index
Notes for George Fairlamb SMITH
Civil War Union Army Officer. The son of Philadelphia lawyer the Honorable Persifor Frazer Smith, he graduated with a law degree from Yale University in 1858. He was nearing admittance to the Pennsylvania Bar when the Civil War started, and abandoned that pursuit to enlist in the Union Army. Initially mustered in on April 20, 1861 as a Private in Company G, 2nd Pennsylvania (Three-Months) Volunteer Infantry, he was soon promoted to 1st Lieutenant and Regimental Quartermaster, a duty he performed in the regiment's service in northern Virginia during the First Bull Run Campaign. Honorably mustered out on July 24, 1861, he then recruited a company of men that would eventually be mustered in on August 2, 1861 as Company B, 49th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry with him as its Captain. He led these troops until March 21, 1862, when he was transferred to the 61st Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry and promoted to Major. In the May 31, 1862 Battle of Fair Oaks near Richmond, Virginia, he was wounded and taken prisoner by Confederate forces. While imprisoned for the next three months, his regiment would be decimated by combat, and he was paroled on August 17, 1862 he founded that his Colonel, Oliver H. Ripley, had been killed in action and he had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel (June 1, 1862). In April 1862 the stressed of field service incapacitated him, and he was discharged for disability on April 23. However, in the subsequent May 1863 Battle of Chancellorsville the 61st Pennsylvania's commander, Colonel George Spear, was killed in the action, and George F. Smith returned to lead the regiment, receiving a commission of Colonel that was dated May 4, 1863. A year later during the May 12, 1864 Battle of Spotsylvania Court House he was again severely wounded, and returned home to West Chester, Pennsylvania for four months to recuperate (during this convalescence he was formally admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar). Returning to his regiment in September 1864, he led it as it participated in the Battle of Cedar Creek, the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia, and in the final pursuit of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in April 1865. After the surrender of General Robert E. Lee's army, Colonel Smith resigned his commission on April 26, 1865. He practiced law post-war, serving as District Attorney for West Chester for three years. After a term in the Pennsylvania State Legislature, and service as a Colonel in the Pennsylvania National Guard on the staff of Governor John Hartranft, he passed away in West Chester in 1877.
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