Item No. 6412373

A nice CDV view of the Kentuckian G. W. Smith, the 1842 West Point graduate who, on May 31, 1862, found himself in command of the Army of Northern Virginia during the Battle of Seven Pines. After General Joseph E. Johnston was wounded in the fighting, Smith’s behavior and indecisiveness convinced President Jefferson Davis to appoint General Robert E. Lee to command. Smith commanded the Richmond defenses for much of the balance of 1862. In 1863, he resigned his general’s commission to join the staff of General Pierre G. T. Beauregard. Later that year he became superintendent of the Etowah Iron Works and, for the rest of the war, commanded a division of the Georgia Militia.

Smith appears in a waist-up pose on the CDV, with printed identification at the base of the mount. On the reverse is the imprint of the Monumental Photograph Company of Baltimore. Measures about 2 1/2” x 4”.