b. 27/11/1836 Wiscasset, Maine. d. 25/01/1919 Fort Monroe, Virginia.
DATE OF MOH ACTION: 27/10/1864 Hatcher’s Run, Virginia.
Joseph S Smith MOH
Civil War Union Brevet Brigadier General, Medal of Honor Recipient. He began his Civil War service as a Quartermaster Sergeant in the 3rd Maine Volunteer Infantry, being mustered in on June 4, 1861. Promoted to 1st Lieutenant in August 1861, his stay with the regiment would only last until November that year, when he was commissioned as a Captain, US Volunteers and assigned to the Commissary of Subsistence Department. He would go on to serve on the staffs of Major Generals John Sedgwick and Oliver Otis Howard before being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and be named as Chief Commissary of Subsistence for the Army of the Potomac’s II Corps. He was serving in that duty during the October 27, 1864, Battle of Boydton Plank Road (sometimes called the First Battle of Hatcher’s Run) during the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia when he earned the CMOH for his bravery.
After the war, Smith settled in Bangor, Maine. He married Agnes E. Clark (3 January 1844 – 17 August 1910) in 1866. They had two sons and a daughter, but their first son died at the age of two.
Smith worked as a merchant and as a U.S. Collector of Customs in Bangor. He also served on the board of managers for the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and was an honorary staff member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. After his wife’s death from breast cancer, Smith moved to Hampton, Virginia, where he served as governor of the National Soldiers’ Home from 1915 to 1918.
Near the end of his life, Smith lived in the Hotel Chamberlin at Fort Monroe with his daughter. He died from brain cancer at the Dixie Hospital in Hampton and was interred beside his wife and toddler son at Arlington National Cemetery on 27 January 1919.
MOH CITATION:
Led a part of a brigade, saved two pieces of artillery, captured a flag, and secured a number of prisoners.
BURIAL LOCATION: ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA.
SECTION 2, GRAVE 996.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: BELIEVED TO BE FAMILY.
