James Washington Smith enlisted in the military on December 17, 1861, in Virginia, when he was 43 years old. He was a Bugler in Company K, VA 8th Cavalry. James was called by his middle name of “Washington”.

From the book “8th Virginia Cavalry” by Jack L. Dickinson, “This company enlisted May 28, 1861, and was called Big Sandy Rangers. It was originally known as Capt. James M. Corns’ Company. The Sandy Rangers were nicknamed the “bloodtubs” due to the bright red flannel hunting shores and caps they wore for several months in early 1861. In its early days the unit consisted of 53 members, but this grew to 110 when it incorporated the Fairview Rifle Guards.”

Info is provided by Lambert’s Papers 4:13….

The Smith household was included in the 1850 and 1860 census of Wayne Co. One great granddaughter, Pauline Smith Gilkerson, recalls seeing a picture of James Washington, which had a lock of his red hair attached.

Skirmish at Camp Creek, Stone River Valley, WVA – 5/1/1862

“The Battle lasted for about one-half hour, then reinforcements came from Princeton, and it looked like a victory for the Confederates. But soon they saw the Union soldiers coming about a quarter mile away. As far as they could see there were soldiers, and seemingly no end to them.”

23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry was commanded by a 38-year-old Harvard-educated lawyer with no military experience before the war by the name of Rutherford B. Hayes. The future 19th US President.

Among the men of the 23rd Ohio was a newly promoted commissary sergeant, William McKinley. A brash and spirited 19-year-old, McKinley would also become President (25th) of the United States.

300 CSA soldiers faced the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry (Co. "C"). Union loss, 1 killed, 20 wounded. CSA loss, 6 killed

5/1/1862 • Camp Creek, Mercer, West Virginia, USA

2000 CSA soldiers and five artillery pieces faced the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry of 600 soldiers. Losses of 2 or 3 killed on either side and several wounded.

5/10/1862 • Giles County, Virginia, USA

Jenkins’ expedition in West Virginia and Ohio – 8/22/1862 to 9/19/1862

Jenkins March through future West Virginia and Southern Ohio

Jenkins’ expedition in West Virginia and Ohio. On August 22, 1862, newly appointed Confederate Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins began a raid through Western Virginia. It was in response to a string of events that began with Robert E. Lee’s impending invasion of Maryland.

On September 4, the raiders crossed the Ohio River in Jackson County—about 60 miles north of Jenkins’s home at Green Bottom—and became the first to raise a Confederate flag on Ohio soil.

8/22/1862 • West Virginia, USA

Battle of White Sulphur Springs, WV – 8/26-27/1863

In obedience to an order from Col. George S. Patton, commanding the Confederate forces, the Twenty-second Regiment, consisting of nine companies (Company K being stationed at the Narrows of New River), was formed in line of battle to support and immediately in front of Chapman’s battery, with orders to hold the position at all hazards, this being the center of the Confederate lines. The strength of the regiment actually in the fight was about 500, aggregate.

That Col. George S Patton was the grandfather of World War II general 
George S. Patton

Battle of Rogersville – 11/6/1863

The Battle of Rogersville was a conflict in and around the town of Rogersville, Tennessee on the morning of November 6, 1863, between the United States Army 3rd Brigade, 4th Cavalry Division and the 2nd East Tennessee Mounted Infantry, and the Confederate States Army Jones’ Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Brigade and the 8th Virginia Cavalry. Because Federal forces were caught largely by surprise, the Confederates, under Brigadier General William E. Jones, were able to recapture Rogersville along with significant supplies from the town’s railroad storehouses.

Battle of Jonesville, Lee County, Virginia – 1/03/1864

“Washington” was wounded in the Battle of Jonesville, Lee County, Virginia. The battle took place on January 3, 1864. Confederate General William E. Jones, assisted by Colonel A.L. Pridemore, defeated a Union Force and captured the battalion. The Union battalion, under the direction of Major Beers, surrendered with 383 men, 3 pieces of light artillery, and 27 6-mule teams. Only two of Pridemore’s men were killed in the battle, and four wounded. About that many were killed and wounded from General Jone’s brigade. The Union troops lost 40 men, killed and wounded. Union troops burned the courthouse, located in the heart of Jonesville, in 1864.

They also burned down Franklin Academy, claiming that it had been used as a Confederate Hospital.

Washington Smith died of gangrene, from complications of a knee wound. 

He "was" buried there.

Note from Don:

New information I just read in the “8th Virginia Cavalry” by Jack L. Dickinson, tells a different story. A Confederate plot at the Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington West Virginia was established in the late 1800’s and many members of the 8th Virginia Cavalry were buried there. In 1895, a resolution was passed by the Camp Garnett chapter of the United Confederate Veterans to exhume and move fellow 8th Cavalry members killed and buried in Tennessee and Virginia to this Confederate plot in Spring Hill. It further states that “Lt. Alexander Samuels, Henry Baumgardner, Lon Love and Charles Shoemaker (all were killed at the same battle as James Washington Smith) were moved to Spring Hill. This author confirmed that they are indeed interred there along with over 400 Confederate soldiers including 4 unknown soldiers (each grave marked with a big X) near these soldiers. It is my belief that one of these “unknown” soldiers could very well be James Washington Smith moved there at the same time as these 4 other soldiers killed at the same battle.