George A. Smith, Colonel, 1st Georgia Confederate

Luke Freet

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Looking for information and photos of Colonel George A. Smith, 2nd commander of Villepigue's 1st Georgia Confederate Regiment. Commanded Stevens' brigade breifly at Atlanta. Killed at Franklin. Found nothing online about him other than his command of the regiment.
 
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Both from his findagrave entry.

Also an encyclopedic entry right here.

And just in case of strange search results a reminder: 1st Confederate = 36th Georgia
 
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George A. Smith is my ggg-grand uncle. The picture of the young boy is, I believe, his son. George was born in 1824 and the boy in that picture appears to be around 10 years old - so no way that is Colonel Smith. I have quite a bit of information amassed on George A. Smith. He was a candy-maker in Macon before the war. He formed a company called "Brown's Rifles" (later Brown's Light Infantry), after Governor Joseph E. Brown.

His company was mustered into Confederate service and they left Macon for Pensacola in April 1861. Smith commanded the water battery at Fort McRee during the battle of November, 1861. He was promoted to Lt. Col and then shortly thereafter to Colonel. After a short furlough back home in January 1862, he was ordered to Fort Gaines, Alabama where he served as post commandant until early 1864.

He joined Johnston's army at Dalton, and took command of Clement Stevens' brigade after he was mortally wounded at Peachtree Creek. Smith had a horse shot out from under him at Atlanta on July 22. The hometown newspaper erroniously reported him as KIA. He marched with Hood's army up to Franklin where he was killed. That's a brief summary, but let me know if there's more you'd like to know.
 
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