William Alexander Smith, a veteran of the Third Virginia regiment, Kemper's brigade, Pickett's division, army of Northern Virginia, was born in Dinwiddie county in 1840. His father, John Smith, a native of the same county, and a soldier of the war of 1812, was the son of Archibald Smith, a native of England. At the time when events were crowding rapidly to the crisis which brought about the formation of the Confederacy, Mr. Smith was preparing for the profession of medicine, in New York city, but he laid aside his studies, and on April 20, 1861, enlisted in Company E of the Third Virginia regiment of infantry. During 1861 he was stationed at Smithfield on the south side of the James, and thence was transferred to the peninsula, where he participated in the battles of Williamsburg and Seven Pines. On the latter field he was taken with pneumonia, which caused his detention at Chimborazo hospital for a time, but he was again in the ranks in the battle of Second Manassas, and subsequently fought at Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. He was then appointed ordnance-sergeant of the Third regiment, and in this capacity he participated in its subsequent service in the Suffolk campaign, the Virginia campaign and the defense of Petersburg. Upon the evacuation of Richmond he was left in hospital and was paroled there. A few years after the close of hostilities Mr. Smith resumed his medical studies in New York, and receiving the degree of M. D., entered upon the practice in Dinwiddie county, and continued in this professional work for ten years. He then gave his attention to farming until 1893, when he was elected superintendent of the almshouse at Petersburg. He is prominent in his church and the I. O. O. F. and is a comrade of A. P. Hill camp, United Confederate Veterans. In 1869 he was married to Miss Mary E. King, of Sussex county.
William Pritchard Smith, a well-known business man of Richmond, was born at Fredericksburg, July 31, 1840. When he reached the age of sixteen years he went to Richmond, and was a resident of that city when the war broke out. In July, 1861, he enlisted as a private in the First Richmond Howitzers, and subsequently participated with that noted artillery command in the campaigns of the army of Northern Virginia until after the battle of Gettysburg, where he was severely wounded. Among the engagements in which he had the honor of doing gallant duty were, besides the great Pennsylvania encounter already mentioned, the actions at Ball's Bluff, Williamsburg, Second Manassas, two engagements at Fredericksburg and two at Harper's Ferry, and Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg he suffered wounds which required the amputation of his right leg and a finger from his left hand, and falling into the hands of the enemy, lay for six weeks in the general hospital at that place, and was then transferred to the hospital-prison at West's building, Baltimore, and six weeks later was exchanged and admitted to the hospital at Richmond. When sufficiently recovered, in the November following, he was detailed to a position in the treasury department of the Confederate government at Richmond, and served in that capacity about one year. On receiving an honorable discharge he entered the commission business at Richmond, but on the evacuation of the city was so unfortunate as to lose his property and business. He then passed several years in mercantile pursuits in North Carolina,
