Smith, Joseph Rowe, 1802-1868.

Joseph Rowe Smith, Sr. (1802-1868) was a U.S. Army Brigadier General. He graduated from the Military Academy in 1823. Smith, Sr. was part of a survey mission in Florida in 1823 during which he fought Seminole Indians. In Sept. 1835 he was appointed adjutant of the 2nd Infantry. He fought in the Mexican border wars, in which he received a permanently debilitating elbow wound. During the Civil War he served as the military commander of Detroit with the rank of Lt. Col. Smith, Sr. was breveted as a Brigadier General by the close of the war. He was happily married to a lady named Juliet and they had seven children. One son, Joseph Rowe Smith, Jr. (1831-1911?) graduated from the University of Michigan, class of 1848. He earned an A.B. and a M.A. and a degree in medicine from the University of Buffalo (NY). In 1854 he joined the Army. During the Civil War he served as a surgeon. Captured by Confederate troops while working at an army hospital in May 1861, Smith, Jr. was later released. Eventually he was promoted to Surgeon General and Medical Director of the U.S. Army in 1865. He was twice breveted, once for meritorious service and once for superior ability and excellent management of his department. In 1901 he received an honorary L.L.D. from the U of M. He may have died in 1911. The Clarke also has a book about University of Michigan Chi Psi Fraternity, of which Smith, Jr. was a co-author. His younger brother, Henry W. Smith, served as an Assistant Adjutant General during the Civil War and died a Brevet Lt. Col. at Fort Stanton (New Mexico) in 1869. (For further information see the finding aid.).

Army General.

Joseph Smith was an officer of the Regular Army and an 1823 graduate of the United States Military Academy. He was assigned to the 2nd US Infantry, and remained a part of it until 1851. In 1837 he began military service in Florida during the Second Seminole War. He also served in the War with Mexico from 1846-48, where he was wounded. This, combined with illnesses from Florida, forced him to take sick leave from 1851-1862. He was retired for disability in 1861.

But continued to serve as Mustering and Distributing officer for the state of Michigan from 1862-66. He performed military service in the Great Lakes region until his death at age 67, in Monroe, Michigan.