Edmund Robby Smith's Accomplishments

Edmund Kirby Smith, an influential figure for the University of the South, lived a long and full life. He was a southerner, a soldier, a businessman, a professor, and a devout husband. Although his legacy is a positive one, Kirby Smith’s remembrance is also controversial because he fought for the Confederacy, but he was remembered as a kind soul. The controversy becomes apparent when his life of service to the Confederacy becomes intertwined with the University who now accepts students of color, and so the struggle lies in how the mission of the University before the Civil War has changed for current students today. He made loyalty his life’s mission, and although he was loyal to the Confederacy he was also loyal to the mission of the University

Remaining at his alma mater through 1852, he was promoted to first lieutenant during his tenure. Departing the academy, he later served under Major William H. Emory on the commission to survey the US-Mexico boundary. Promoted to captain in 1855, Smith changed branches and shifted to the cavalry. Joining the 2nd US Cavalry, he moved to the Texas frontier. Over the next six years, Smith took part in operations against the Native Americans in the region and in May 1859 received a wound in the thigh while fighting in the Nescutunga Valley. With the Secession Crisis in full swing, he was promoted to major on January 31, 1861. A month later, following Texas' departure from the Union, Smith received a demand from Colonel Benjamin McCulloch to surrender his forces. Refusing, he threatened to fight to protect his men.During the war, while wounded, Smith met the woman who would become his wife, Cassie Selden, and they married on September 24, 1861. They had five sons, and six

Also in 1863 he was sent to command the Trans-Mississippi Theater and he remained on the west side of the Mississippi for the remainder of the war. He found himself isolated from Richmond after the Union forces captured Vicksburg and Port Hudson. Smith established himself in command of an almost independent area, which became known as Kirby Smithdom. He continued to try to win back Vicksburg against the Union from the west side of the Mississippi but was never successful. In 1865, by which he was now a general, he had negotiated surrender on May 26th. Following the signed agreement, he fled to Mexico, and then to Cuba, fearing prosecution for treason. Smith returned to Virginia November 14th, 1865 to take an oath of Amnesty. His wife negotiated his return, and then he returned to the United States, where he became President of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company and he was also the President of the University of