Ashbel Smith: Difference between revisions

'''Ashbel Smith''' (August 13, 1805 – January 21, 1886) was a [[List of slave owners|slave owner]], pioneer [[physician]], [[diplomat]], and official of the [[Republic of Texas]], [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] officer and first President of the Board of Regents of the [[University of Texas]]. Smith helped lead efforts to keep Texas a [[Republic]] and [[Slavery|slave]] state.

Smith was born on August 13, 1805, in [[Hartford, Connecticut]], United States, and attended Hartford public schools. He graduated from [[Yale University]] at the age of 19 where he was a member of [[Phi Beta Kappa]] Honor society. Smith taught briefly in a private school in [[Salisbury, North Carolina]], and then attended medical school at Yale graduating as medical doctor in 1828. He later lived in France and during the [[Paris, France|Paris]] [[cholera]] epidemic of 1832, Smith helped to treat the sick and wrote a pamphlet on the disease.<ref name="Handbook of Texas Online">[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsm04 Handbook of Texas Online]</ref> Returning to the United States, Smith began his medical practice in Salisbury, North Carolina. He became active politically and part owner of the [[Nullification (U.S. Constitution)|nullification]] newspaper the ''Western Carolinian''. In the fall of 1836, Smith was persuaded to move to Texas by [[J. Pinckney Henderson]], whom Smith had become friends with in Salisbury and was already in Texas.

Upon arriving in Texas in 1837, Smith quickly became a close acquaintance of [[Sam Houston]] and was appointed to the post of surgeon general with the Republic of Texas Army. Even though militarily the [[Texas Revolution]] was over, Smith set up an efficient system of medical operations and established the first hospital in the area that would become [[Houston, Texas|Houston]].<ref>[http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00362/cah-00362.html Ashbel Smith Papers, The Center for American History]</ref> As President of the Republic of Texas, Sam Houston called on Smith to negotiate a treaty with the [[Comanches]] in 1838. The [[Texas Congress]] failed to ratify the treaty, which would have recognized a Comanche homeland, the [[Comancheria]], thus leading to the [[Council House Fight]] and [[Great Raid of 1840]].<ref name="ftp.rootsweb.com">[http://files.usgwarchives.org/tx/smith/bios/txgray/smitha.txt Johnson, Sid S. ''Texans Who Wore the Gray''.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303012113/http://files.usgwarchives.org/tx/smith/bios/txgray/smitha.txt |date=March 3, 2012 }}</ref>

In President Sam Houston's second term (1841–1844), Dr. Smith was [[Ambassador|Minister Plenipotentiary]] from the Republic of Texas to the [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland]] and [[July Revolution|France]], residing in London and Paris, respectively. He also traveled to Rome on a diplomatic mission to [[Pope Gregory XVI]].<ref name="ftp.rootsweb.com"/> In Europe, Smith secured ratification of a treaty of amity and commerce between England and Texas and improved the Republic's relations with France, which had been ruffled by the so-called [[Pig War (Texas-France)|Pig War]].<ref name="Handbook of Texas Online"/> On his return from Europe in 1845, Smith was appointed [[Secretary of State of Texas|Secretary of State]] by President [[Anson Jones]]. With the possibility of annexation by the United States Smith worked to give the people of Texas a choice between remaining an independent republic and being annexed. To facilitate this, he negotiated a treaty, in which Mexico recognized the independence of Texas, won in 1836, and in return Texas would not be annexed by another country. This treaty, known as the [[Cuevas-Smith-Cuevas Treaty]]treaty, angered many Texans who were strong supporters of annexation, and Smith was burned in effigy by citizens of Galveston and [[San Felipe, Texas|San Felipe]].<ref name="Handbook of Texas Online"/> This treaty was rejected by the Texan Congress which preferred the annexation resolutions, and thus, Texas was annexed by the United States on December 29, 1845, and became the 28th state of the Union in early 1846.<ref>[http://www.tshaonline.org/publications/journals/shq/online/v009/n1/issue.html The Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association, Vol. IX, July 1905-April, 1906.]</ref>

In the early 1850s, Dr. Smith worked with [[Gail Borden]] to develop and promote a dried beef biscuit.<ref name="Silverthorne, Elizabeth 1982" /> When the [[Texas Medical Association]] came into being in 1853, Smith was one of the founders.<ref name="Handbook of Texas Online" /> In 1855, Smith was elected to the [[Texas House of Representatives]] from Harris County. In his first term, Smith supported measures to aid railroad construction, validate land titles, improve the common schools.<ref name="Handbook of Texas Online" /> He also served as headmaster of Houston Academy before the Civil War.

Smith supported Texas' secession from the Union in 1861. When it was clear that war was inevitable, he organized the Bayland Guards, also known as Company C of the [[Second2nd Texas Infantry Regiment|2nd Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment]] to fight for the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. He outfitted and drilled the company, and the men elected Smith as their captain.<ref name="Handbook of Texas Online"/> While commanding Company C at the [[Battle of Shiloh]] in 1862, Smith received a severe arm injury and was cited for gallantry, along with the rest of his company. For his bravery, Smith was [[Brevet (military)|brevetted]] a [[Colonel]] and was given command of the Second[[2nd Texas Infantry Regiment|2nd Texas Volunteer Infantry Regiment]]. At the [[Battle of Vicksburg]], the regiment was distinguished for its defense of a crescent-shaped fortification, which came to be known as the Second Texas Lunette. The fortification was located in the center of the Vicksburg line of defense. Under the command of Col. Smith, the Second Texas Infantry withstood two Union assaults of brigade strength directed against the lunette on May 22, 1863.<ref name="Lone Star Brigade">[{{Cite web |url=http://www.lonestarbrigade.com/History.html |title=Lone Star Brigade] |access-date=2007-08-09 |archive-date=2007-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071009224536/http://www.lonestarbrigade.com/History.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> After the surrender of the Confederates at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, Smith was in charge of defenses in the vicinity of the Matagorda Peninsula on the Texas Gulf Coast and finally at the end of the war, the remnants of Second Texas was charged with defending the port of Galveston from Union control.<ref name="Lone Star Brigade"/>

==After the war: focus on public education for African-Americans and women==

Smith, with Greensville Dowell, reorganized the troubled GavlestonGalveston Medical College into the Texas Medical College in 1873. As president of the Texas State Medical Association and trustee of the University of Texas, he advocated keeping the medical school in Galveston, arguing before the Texas Legislature that Galveston presented the best opportunity to study diseases.<ref>{{cite book|title=Galveston: a history|last=McComb|first=David G.|publisher=University of Texas Press|location=Austin, Texas|year=1986|page=98}}</ref>

Smith never married. He died on January 21, 1886, at his plantation home Evergreen.<ref>[{{Cite web|url=http://ourbaytown.com/Around_Baytown3/target4.html]|title = Around Baytown - Hom eof Ashbel Smith Memorial - Daughters of the Republic of Texas}}</ref>

* Ashbel Smith Professorships throughout the [[University of Texas]] system, held by notable scholars including [[David Crews]], [[Ian McCutcheon]], [[Clarence Paul Oliver]], [[Ilya Prigogine]], [[Emmette Redford]], [[David M. Young, Jr.]], and [[Morris Ziff]]

* Ashbel Smith Hall of the University of Texas System administration in Downtown Austin, demolished in 2018.

| before=[[Ebenezer Allen (Texas politician)|Ebenezer Allen]]

| after=[[Ebenezer Allen (Texas politician)|Ebenezer Allen]]

[[Category:AmericanPhysicians physiciansfrom Texas]]

[[Category:PeopleMilitary personnel from Houston, Texas]]