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CDV of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith

CDV of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith

SKU: 11630221
$450.00Price

This CDV shows Smith in a waist-up view in uniform. He wears a double-breasted frock with rank insignia visible on the collar and sleeves. The image is very sharp and the card mount is in near mint condition. Photographer's backmark, E. & H.T. Anthony, New York from a Brady negative.

General Edmund Kirby Smith (May 16, 1824 – March 28, 1893) was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded the Trans-Mississippi Department (comprising Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, western Louisiana, Arizona Territory and the Indian Territory) from 1863 to 1865. Prior to the American Civil War, Smith served in the United States Army.

Smith was wounded at First Bull Run and distinguished himself during the Heartland Offensive, the Confederacy's unsuccessful attempt to capture Kentucky in 1862. He was appointed as commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department in January 1863. After the lost of Vicksburg, the Trans-Mississippi Department was cut off from the rest of the Confederacy, and became virtually an independent nation, nicknamed "Kirby Smithdom".

On June 2, 1865, Smith surrendered his army at Galveston, Texas, the last general with a major field force. He quickly escaped to Mexico and then to Cuba to avoid arrest for treason. His wife negotiated his return during the period when the federal government offered amnesty to those who would take an oath of loyalty. After his return, Smith worked in the telegraph and railway industries. He also served as a professor of mathematics at the University of the South in Tennessee. He botanized plant specimens and bequeathed his collection to the University of Florida.

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