Texas Ranger General E. Kirby Smith, C.S.A.

Smith's career ran far beyond Texas. He graduated twenty-fifth at West Point in 1845, won brevets at Cerro Gordo and at Contreras and Churubusco, and lost his brother Ephraim at Molino del Rey. After teaching mathematics at West Point, he served on William H. Emory's boundary survey. As a major in early 1861 he refused Henry E. McCulloch's demand that he surrender Camp Colorado, then resigned when Florida seceded. Wounded at First Manassas, he won at Richmond, Kentucky, in 1862, turned back Nathaniel Banks's Red River campaign in 1864 and surrendered to Edward Canby on June 2, 1865.

What the plaque says

Texas Ranger General E. Kirby Smith, C.S.A. (1824-1893) Born in Florida. Graduated from West Point. Fought in Mexican War. On the Texas frontier in the 1850s, commanded Camps Belknap, Cooper and Colorado. In 1860 and many years afterwards was a partner of J. M. Hunter of Fredericksburg in a Texas ranch. Resigned from U. S. Army, 1861, to serve Confederacy. Was appointed 1863, to command all the area west of the Mississippi. At that time Federals held the river, all of Missouri, much of Arkansas, Louisiana and Indian Territory, and were trying to take Texas and her supplies of food, cotton and horses. The Trans-Mississippi Dept. had many problems. The French under Maximilian were approaching from Mexico. Indians and bandits constantly raided frontiers. Freighters and blockade runners had to be employed for exporting cotton-- the only product the South had for trading to get guns, ammunition and goods. Texas was chief source of the cotton Gen. Smith used for financing his army. It was place of safety to which he sent his wife and children. It gave him ovations as he went to Mexico after the war ended. Young Texans studied, 1875-1893, in his mathematics classes at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tenn. (1965)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Luckenbach — 3.7 mi
  A store, saloon and dance hall on Grape Creek that a humorist bought in 1971, declared a free state of mind, and turned into a pilgrimage for Texas music.
• Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site — 5.8 mi
  A state park on the Pedernales opposite the LBJ Ranch, with a working Texas-German farm kept as it was around the First World War and the permit desk for the ranch tour.
• Fort Martin Scott — 7.6 mi
  An army post of 1848 on Barons Creek beside the German town, where soldiers kept the peace of a Comanche trade and paid the merchants in hard cash.
• National Museum of the Pacific War — 9.3 mi
  A museum of the war in the Pacific in Chester Nimitz's hometown, dedicated at his request to the two million who served with him, with a garden given by Japan.

More markers nearby

• Engel Family — 3.6 mi
• Major Israel M. Nunez — 3.7 mi
• Lyndon Baines Johnson — 3.7 mi
• Jakob (Jacob) Brodbeck — 5.1 mi