and resources of Northwestern Texas and the state of Chihuahua in Mexico.  Later he was transferred to Florida and made surveys for a ship canal across the peninsula from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.  Subsequently he had charge of the Eleventh District in the light-house service with his headquarters at Detroit.  He then became Assistant Secretary, and finally on the retirement of his friend, Captain Franklin, Engineer Secretary of the Light-House Board.  He had previously asked for service with the army in Mexico, but this had been denied.  His service in Texas and Florida had brought him in contact with a number of officers who afterwards became distinguished in the Civil War.  Among the most notable of these were Buell, Joseph E. Johnston, McClellan, Meade, Burnside and Emory.  His light-house service gave him a friendly association with Commodore Shubrick and Captain (afterwards Admiral) Jenkins of the navy, General Totten of the army, Professor Bache of the Coast survey and Professor Henry of the Smithsonian Institute, and opened to him a wide acquaintance with the scientific thought of the day.  While connected with the Light-House board he planned and supervised the construction of four first-class light-houses, one for Montauk Point, two for Navesink Highlands and Sandy Hook, and one for Cape Canaveral.  These were all works of the highest class, fully abreast of the world’s best practice at the time.

His experience in connection with the Light-House Board prepared the way for a piece of specially useful service to the country during the exciting period just prior to the outbreak of actual hostilities between the North and the South.  His position gave him access to the Secretary of the Treasury, as the chief of the department to which the Light-House Board belonged.  The storm then brewing showed itself in that board, made up, as it was, of Northern and Southern men, as well as elsewhere, and being intensely loyal, Smith took measures to protect and supply the principal light-houses on the southern coast.  It will be remembered that Howell Cobb of Georgia was succeeded by General John A. Dix of New York as Secretary of the Treasury, and that the latter aroused the drooping hopes of the country by his celebrated order:  “If any man attempts to haul down the American flag shoot him on the spot.”  Smith was privy to and encouraged the issuance of that order.  Immediately afterwards General Dix gave him carte-blanche over the light-house service, in pursuance of which he visited all the important southern light stations, winding up at Key West.  He found that place cut off from communication with Washington, and liable to fall at once under the control of the Secessionists.  The Collector of Customs was a southern man and disloyal.  The people of the town were in sympathy with him, and were doing all they could to overawe Captains Hunt and Brannan, who were stationed there with a small force of regular artillery.  They were loyal and