December 28, Susan Harber, The Daily News Journal
General Thomas Benton Smith was born in 1838 in a hamlet Mechanicsville (a few miles from DeWitt Jobe’s home). He experienced a fun, exciting, and uncomplicated childhood with cousins DeWitt Jobe and Dee Smith. Fate would tragically reveal a coming horizon, as all three cousins eventually perished as a result of the Civil War.
General Thomas Benton Smith was born in 1838 in a hamlet Mechanicsville (a few miles from DeWitt Jobe’s home). He experienced a fun, exciting, and uncomplicated childhood with cousins DeWitt Jobe and Dee Smith. Fate would tragically reveal a coming horizon, as all three cousins eventually perished as a result of the Civil War.
Thomas enrolled in the Nashville Military Academy and was known for his brilliant mind. At the tender age of 16 years old, he developed a patent for a locomotive pilot. Thomas worked for the Nashville and Decatur Railroad just before the Civil War commenced.
Thomas, a lifelong bachelor, was over six feet tall and a magnificent soldier from the first day. He enlisted in Triune in the 20th Tennessee Infantry and engaged in combat action at the Battle of Mill Springs in January 1862. By April, he was a soldier in the Battle of Shiloh watching firsthand as half of his regiment lost lives. After Thomas’ efforts in Baton Rouge, Commander John Breckinridge wrote in his report that Smith ‘moved with his brigade against the enemy in fine style.’ His regiment greatly admired his cool and calm demeanor under intense pressure. Thomas was now an esteemed colonel under General Braxton Bragg.
In the Battle of Stones River, Thomas was wounded in the chest and left arm by a minie ball. His recovery encompassed the entire year of 1863. In this same engagement at Stones River, his older brother John died. When healed, Thomas fought in the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 only to be wounded again. After action in the 1863 Missionary Ridge battle, Thomas was promoted to brigadier general on July 29, 1864, serving as the youngest within this role within the Army of Tennessee. The boy general moved on to fight in the 1864 Atlanta Campaign and the Battle of Franklin where he walked away unscathed. Thomas definitely fought in a share of the bloodiest engagements of the war.
On December 16, 1864, Thomas led a major encounter on Shy’s Hill in the Battle of Nashville atop Granny White Pike. The maneuvers in this battle with John Hood ended Thomas’ military career. Colonel William Shy also greatly suffered and unabashedly lost his life. Initially, Thomas instructed his men to ‘hold the line at all hazards.’ Nevertheless, soundly outnumbered by Federal troops, Thomas gave a white flag of surrender and was disarmed. Suddenly, Thomas was cruelly stabbed three times (with his own sword) by a Yankee Colonel William L. McMillen of the 95thOhio. This soldier was known as a raging alcoholic. Smith cried ‘I am a disarmed prisoner!’ Thomas barely survived the wound that resulted in a severe brain injury. He was moved to a prison on Johnson’s Island in Ohio and released on July 24, 1865 at a young age of 27 years old.
Thomas was never again in his right mind with the head injury received at Shy’s Hill after a savage beating by a relentless and brutal colonel. He made every attempt to lead a normal life and ran for United States Congress unsuccessfully in 1870. For the next 47 years, Thomas resided in the Tennessee State Asylum, after being committed by his sister. He only left these premises to attend Confederate reunions twice a year. He died in 1923 at the age of 85 years old and was a prisoner no more while buried in the Confederate Circle of Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville. An outstanding soldier, he was marred by the cruelty of a war that was uncompromising and unyielding for both North and South.