William "Extra Billy" Smith - Links and Resources

Representing the Confederate high command are the the members of Lee's Lieutenants www.leeslieutenants.com

Their Yankee counterparts are the Federal Generals Corps

www.federalgeneralscorp.com

The two groups get together each June at the Old Courthouse Museum in Winchester for the annual Gathering of Civil War Eagles. www.civilwargatheringofeagles.com

Another event the two groups do together each April, in conjunction with the Appomattox County Historical Society, is "The Long Road Home". In 2010 there was a commemoration of the 145th anniversary of the surrender at Appomattox. Over the next five years, 2011 - 2015, a series of events will lead up to the 150th Appomattox anniversary. The website for this event is at www.150thappomattox.com

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145th Appomattox Living History Event at Clover Hill Village

This video is of the Civil War Living History event that took place at Clover Hill Village for the 145th anniversary of Lee's surrender.

Generals can do very little on a battlefield without the troops, such as the infantrymen of the Fairfax Rifles - Co. D, 17th Virginia Inf. Reg.

www.fairfaxrifles.org

Following Extra Billy's death his brother in law, John W. Bell, compiled the "MEMOIRS OF GOVERNOR WILLIAM SMITH OF VIRGINIA" published by the Moss Engraving Company of New York in 1889. The full text is on line at www.memory.loc.gov Search that site for "governor william smith".

In the previous pages you have probable noticed a number of quotes about Extra Billy from Robert Stiles' memoirs; "FOUR YEARS UNDER MARSE ROBERT". This work is part of the "Documenting the American South" project at the University of North Carolina and is on line at http://docsouth.unc.edu/fpn/stiles/menu.html In fact, the whole project is a gold mine of information from this period.

Perhaps the primary resource for the war is the "Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armys in the War of the Rebellion", generally refered to as "The Official Records". Cornell University has the complete full text online at

http://digital.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/waro.html

Newspapers of the period are interesting, although not always accurate, resources. The Richmond Daily Dispatch is online at http://dlxs.richmond.edu/d/ddr/ The Illustrated London News is at http://beck.library.emory.edu/iln/volume.php Harper's Weekly is at http://www.sonofthesouth.net/ and the New York Times is

http://query.nytimes.com/search/query

A picture is worth a thousand works. Here is a site with great photographs:

http://www.mikelynaugh.com/VirtualCivilWar/New/Originals2/index.html Click on the picture for an enlargement and the caption. Selected photographs from the Library of Congress are at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/ The National Archives has some photographs online at http://www.archives.gov/research/civil-war/photos/#activities

Three good places for research in Richmond are the Virginia Historical Society at http://www.vahistorical.org/, the Library of Virginia at http://www.lva.virginia.gov/ and the Museum of the Confederacy at www.moc.org.

A recent biography by Gregory Glassner is "EXTRA BILLY SMITH, VIRGINIA'S GOVERNOR GENERAL"; Kurt-Ketner Publishing Co.; Brightwood, NJ; 2000

The December, 1963, issue of "Civil War Times Illustrated" magazine features "EXTRA BILLY SMITH - A PROFILE' by William Hassler

Alvin A. Fahrner's "THE PUBLIC CAREER OF WILLIAM 'EXTRA BILLY' SMITH", his 1953 unpublished doctoral dissertation for the University of North Carolina, is a good reference for Smith's political life.

An interesting phase of Extra Billy's life was his time in California, 1849-1852.

Although she never mentions him, Mary Megquier traveled across Panama to California at the same time as Extra Billy and may have actually travel on the same ship with him from Panama to California. Her book "APRON FULL OF GOLD" was published in 1949 by the Huntington Library in San Marino, Cal.

Smith's son, James Caleb, preceded him to California and Billy was present when James fought a duel with Judge David Broderick. After Billy returned home to Virginia at the end of 1852 his son Austin went to California, where he fought a duel in 1855. A gentleman (using that tern rather loosely) named Dutch Charlie Duane wrote in detail about both these affairs in "AGAINST THE VIGILANTES" published by the Univ. of Oklahoma Press, Norman, Ok, in 1999.

Extra Billy had a very active military career from 1861 through 1863. The classic study on the commanders and actions of the Army of Northern Virginia is the three volume "LEE'S LIEUTENANTS" by Douglas Southall Freeman. There have been a number of re-prints, the one I own is the 1942 Charles Scribner's Sons edition.

Extra Billy commanded the 49th Virginia Infantry Regiment in 1861 and 1863 and advanced to command the brigade in which the 49th served in 1863. The Wadsworth Publishing Co. of Marceline, Mo., in 1981 published "HISTORY OF THE FORTY-NINTH VIRGINIA INFANTRY; 'EXTRA BILLY'S BOYS'" by Laura Hale and Stanley Phillips.

H. E. Howard, Inc. of Lynchburg (later moved to Appomattox) Va., produced the Virginia Regimental History series. As part of that project, Richard B. Kleese wrote "49th VIRGINIA INFANTRY". Books from that series dealing with the other regiments in Smith's Brigade" are "13th VIRGINIA INFANTRY" by David Riggs, "31st VIRGINIA INFANTRY" by John Ashcraft, and "52nd VIRGINIA INFANTRY" and "58TH VIRGINIA INFANTRY", both by Robert Driver.