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This tablet is presented to Vermont by soldiers from other states who admire so much her great soldier son

Brevet Major General
William Farrar Smith,
U.S.  Army.

The extracts here quoted from the letter of the assistant secretary of war C.A.  Dana, to General Grant, dated December 21, 1863, show that at a crisis in the Nation’s life he was in the thoughts of Lincoln, Stanton and Grant, as the general best qualified for the most important command.

“The surest means of getting the rebels altogether out of East Tennessee is to be found in the Army of the Potomac.  This naturally led to your second proposition, namely that either Sherman or W.F.  Smith should be put in command of that army.  Both the Secretary of War and Gen. Halleck said ’Gen. W.F.  Smith would be the best person to try’.  The President, the Secretary of War and Gen Halleck agree with you in thinking that it would be on the whole much better to select him.”

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Series I Vol.  XXXI Page 457 Official Records Union and Confederate Armies. (War of the Rebellion)]

I cannot close this sketch without repeating in part my personal testimony to the strength and elevation of General Smith’s character.  He was blessed by a singularly clear, orderly and comprehensive mind, and was most industrious and persistent in its use.  Somewhat phlegmatic and deliberate in temperament and manner, he gave the impression occasionally that he was lacking in push and energy, but such was not the case in fact.  During his services on the Rio Grande he suffered, as previously related, a malarial attack from which it is now evident he never entirely recovered.  Under exposure to the summer sun, he was for the rest of his life liable to a recurrence of the symptoms especially those pertaining to the head, and this may have made him more or less irascible at times.  Military habits are at best not calculated to develop a mild and patient behavior, nor to beget a spirit of resignation to unjust or arbitrary treatment, especially if it comes from higher authority, and is not merited.

General Smith was the last man to lay claim to a saint-like character, but according to those who knew him best he possessed a just and even a charitable disposition, which made him fair towards his equals and most considerate towards his subordinates.  He was, however, above all things, logical, and as a close student of his profession, he invariably followed the established principles of the military art to their legitimate conclusions.  In the presence of great military problems and responsibilities such as those with which he had to deal at Chattanooga, he became absorbed and reticent if not austere and had but little to say except to those with whom it was his duty to talk.  There the solution was so clearly his own that no one thought of disputing it with him till years afterwards.