“On October, 1863, he [General Smith] was transferred to the West, where he in turn became Chief Engineer of the Department of the Cumberland, on the staff of General George H. Thomas, and of the Military Division of the Mississippi, on the staff of General Grant.  As such he devised the plan of operations by which the Army of the Cumberland was saved from starvation and capture at Chattanooga, and was duly credited with the same by General Thomas.  He also devised the plan of operations by which Bragg’s army was overthrown and driven back from Missionary Ridge, for which services he was again appointed and this time confirmed as Major General of Volunteers, also as Brevet Brigadier General, United States Army.”

After referring to other incidents of his life, which have been considered more fully in this account of his public services and need not he repeated here, this report added, although General Smith had resigned from the army many years before, that he was

“fully entitled at the hands of the government to be retired for a lifetime of hard and conspicuous service, in which he has displayed the most incorruptible honesty, the most outspoken patriotism and devotion and the highest ability.  It has been the good fortune of but few men in any age or in any country to save an army and to direct it to victory, from a subordinate position.  Such service in Europe would secure honor and riches.  In ours it should certainly result in an assignment to a place on the retired list of the army, with the rank of Major General, and the appropriate pay for the remaining years of his life.  The committee therefore unanimously recommend the passage of the bill.”

The final action taken in this case, while highly creditable to General Smith, was not as liberal as the House Committee thought it ought to be.  The Senate Committee, while concurring in the commendation of the General, in conformity to its own practice cut his rank on the retired list down to that of Major, which was the actual grade he held in the regular army at the date of his resignation.  It was a piece of ungracious and niggardly economy, for the services which entitled him to retirement were those of a general officer, and as he was actually promoted from Brigadier General to Major General in recognition thereof, the House of Representatives was clearly right in recommending his retirement with the higher grade.  General Smith, who had not in any way asked for this recognition, was strongly inclined to decline it, but on the solicitation of his friends he finally accepted it.

At the end of the war General Smith, notwithstanding the differences which had arisen between him and his official superiors, received the brevet of Major General for “gallant and meritorious services in the field during the rebellion.”