Edmund Kirby Smith Quick Facts

Name Meaning:

Edmund is of Old English origin and means “wealthy protector”.

Vital Stats

Birthday: May 16th, 1824
Birth Name: Edmund Kirby Smith (often referred to as
Kirby Smith or E. Kirby Smith)
Birthplace: St. Augustine, Florida
Date of Death: March 28th, 1893
Cause of Death: Pneumonia
Place of Death: Sewanee, Tennessee
Nationality: American
Ancestry: English
Occupation before Civil War:
Career U.S. Army officer, West Point graduate
Occupation during Civil War:
Officer in Confederate Army, rising from
Major to full General; brigade, division,
and corps commander; commander of Confederate
Trans-Mississippi Department
Occupation after Civil War:
Telegraph company president, teacher,
university chancellor, professor of botany
and mathematics.

Major Battles:

First Bull Run; Richmond, Kentucky;
was in overall command of operations
in the Trans-Mississippi (Confederate
territory west of the Mississippi River)
from January 1863 until the end of the war.

Relatives:

Father: Joseph Lee Smith (May 28, 1776-May 27, 1846)
Mother: Frances Kirby Smith (April 6, 1785-August 3, 1875)
Brother: Ephraim Smith (June 17, 1806-September 11, 1847)
Sister: Frances Smith (October 9, 1809-December 10, 1881)
Sister: Josephine Smith (1818-1835)

Romance

Married: Cassie Seldon September 21, 1861
(September 26, 1837-November 3, 1907)

Children:

Daughter: Caroline (October 5, 1862-January 24, 1941)
Daughter: Frances (July 9, 1864-November 1, 1952)
Son: Edmund (August 26, 1866-August 27, 1938)
Daughter: Rowena (October 2, 1870-December 11, 1965)
Daughter: Lydia (1868 or 1871-1943)
Daughter: Elizabeth (January 2, 1872-November 25, 1917)
Son: Reynold (June 14, 1874-1962)
Son: William (February 27, 1876-February 12, 1941)
Sister: Josephine (October 11, 1878-September 1, 1961)
Son: Joseph (April 16, 1882-November 5, 1939)
Son: Ephraim (August 30, 1884-July 6, 1938)

Resources:

General Edmund Kirby Smith, C.S.A. by Joseph Howard Parks
Kirby Smith’s Confederacy: The TransMississippi South, 1863-1865 by Robert Lee Kerby
A Crisis in Confederate Command: Edmund Kirby Smith, Richard Taylor, and the Army of the Trans-Mississippi by Jeffery S. Prushankin