Walter Smith

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

Walter Smith (ca. 1842 - 1935) is best known for being the man who shot Guy Bradley, the first game warden in American history to be killed in the line of duty. When he died, his obituary didn't mention shooting that but rather than he was one of the last Civil War veterans.

Smith has a headstone for service as a Private in Company I, 3rd North Carolina Infantry Regiment. His family states Walter enlisted three days after Fort Sumter and served until the end of the war, serving as a scout and sharpshooter. He was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness and spend the rest of the war recovering at Chimborazo. Walter's obituary claims he was born and raised in New Bern, NC and that his parents were born in England.

But...

• I can't find any record for a Walter Smith in the 3rd NC through Ancestry.com's Civil War databases. The closest I could find was a Walter Jones Smith who served in a couple NC cavalry regiments and died in 1910.
• I can't find a Walter Smith in or near New Bern on the 1860 census. The closest is the aforementioned Walter Jones Smith.
• His later census records are all over the place. Birth years vary between 1841, 1842, and 1845.
• 1880: born NC; parents born VA.
• 1900: born Nova Scotia; parents born Maine.
• 1910: born Maine; father born Maine and mother born NC. Not marked as a veteran.
• 1920: born Maine; parents born NC.
• 1930: born NC; father born Maine and mother born NC. Marked as a Civil War veteran.

There is a Civil War pension application filed in 1930 for Eugene W. Smith alias Walter E. Smith who lived in Florida at the time and had served in the "18th U.S. Infantry Hospital Corps" according to the application. The 1930 census shows no Eugene Smith in Florida old enough to be a Civil War veteran. The only other Walter Smith of sufficient age on that census was a 95 year old black man in Jacksonville who was marked as a Civil War veteran so it could have been him.

Am I missing some other evidence of his Confederate service, or have we caught a liar?

 

[Allyn]

isn't genealogy fun? The CW Soldiers and Sailors Database lists one "possible" man - Walter J. Smith, who served in the 1st Regiment, North Carolina Infantry (6 months, 1861). I'm guessing this is Walter Jones Smith, but I could be wrong.

Sounds like maybe the family 'enhanced" Walter's military exploits. I have one CW ancestor who had only a nodding acquaintance with the truth in most things, but he never falsified or exaggerated his military service.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

Despite what the headstone says as to his unit, found no evidence of 'Walter Smith' belonging to 'Co. I, 3 NC Infantry.' Also, nothing found on NPS database at Appomattox for this name in this unit (although it's noted he supposedly spent the end of the war in hospital, recovering from his wounds). These findings are not conclusive, though.

Even if he served as a scout and sharpshooter, thought he would at least have served with a nominal unit.

Nearest name and unit found was 'Pvte. Walter D. Smith', 'Co. D, 3rd. NC Cavalry'.

If he did indeed serve, could he have belonged to another NC (or other state) unit? Or did he not serve in any NC unit?

 

[Sivart]

If our man was the 95 year old in Jacksonville, he would have been 25 when he enlisted, which sounds fairly reasonable. My guess there could have been some exaggeration, or the records could have just been lost over the course of time. Interesting story though.

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

If our man was the 95 year old in Jacksonville, he would have been 25 when he enlisted, which sounds fairly reasonable.

The guy in Jacksonville is the other possible individual who submitted the pension application in 1930. The Walter Smith who claimed to be a Confederate veteran was in Pompano.

Note the pension is for service in a medical capacity in the Union Army while Walter Smith claimed to have ended the war in a Confederate hospital.

Walter ended up in SC in the 1870s, allegedly shipwrecked, where he met his wife. Did he concoct a heroic Confederate backstory to endear himself to the locals when in fact he served in a Union support unit?

Parents allegedly died between the start and end of the war. Convenient sob story: not wanting their boy to go off to war then never got to see him again, and he was no reason to return to New Bern after the war. Parents are allegedly English to explain away why he doesn't talk with a Southern accent. Who in SC would know what a Maine accent sounds like?

 

[lupaglupa]

Sounds like maybe the family 'enhanced" Walter's military exploits

We certainly haven't seen that before

 

[7thWisconsin]

You missed one - I have a Walter Smith in my family! Born maybe 1889 in Pennsylvania. He was a field artilleryman in WW1. I have many of his personal effects.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Does he show up in the NC roster published in the 1960s, sometimes called the Manarin roster? I believe this is considered definitive.

see https://www.ncpedia.org/civil-war-rosters

 

[Bruce Vail]

Col. Steven Thruston provided a detailed casualty report for the 3rd NC covering May 5 through May 15 1864, that was published in the Raleigh Daily Progress June 9. There is no mention of a Walter Smith in the paragraph covering Co. I.