Be all this as it may, it is certain that his family were straight Anglo-Saxons, who like the rest, came into New England under the pressure of religious and political disturbance at home, and brought with them the sturdy virtues and ineradicable prejudices of their race.  It is equally certain that this race, whatever its origin and however it may have been compounded and produced, has thriven and expanded in America, and that our country is indebted to it for not only its greatest scholars, divines and statesmen, but for its greatest soldiers as well.  General Smith belonged by nature and education to both classes, and before this sketch is concluded I hope to show that in the highest walks of his chosen profession he had few equals and no superiors.

Like many another youth, his latent love of arms and his determination to go to West Point were aroused by seeing a company of regular soldiers, and making the acquaintance of its officers, at his native town.  They were sent there to maintain order and prevent violations of the neutrality laws during the Canadian disturbances in 1837-8.  From the day of his cadetship he received the sobriquet and was always thereafter designated familiarly by his more intimate friends as Baldy Smith in contradistinction from other officers of the same patronymic.  In the old days his name would have been written Baldysmith.

He was a brilliant and faithful student and became in turn a cadet-corporal, color-sergeant and lieutenant.  When it is recalled that he received those honors from that prince of soldiers Captain (afterwards Major General) Charles F. Smith, then commandant of cadets, and in whose presence it is said no graduate of his time could ever appear without involuntarily assuming the position of a soldier, it will be understood that young Smith was brought up under proper influences and sent forth with the highest ideals of his profession.  He graduated in the “fives” of his class.  He was commissioned as a Brevet Second Lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers, and served with it continuously till, for convenience and simplicity of administration, it was merged with the Corps of Engineers after the outbreak of the Rebellion.  At the request of his chief, he gave up two-thirds of the usual graduating leave of absence to lend a hand to an under-manned surveying party on Lake Erie.  His services were from the first of the scientific and useful rather than the showy sort.  They brought him a wide range of valuable experience, extending from the surveys of the great lakes to explorations of Texas and Arizona, covering a period of seven years, two of which were spent under Joseph E. Johnston and William H. Emory, then of the same corps, while engaged in establishing the new boundary line between Mexico and the United States.  During his service in that region he located the stage and wagon-route from San Antonio to El Paso, surveyed a part of the Rio Grande Valley, and familiarized himself with the topography