Duncan Smith, History; Cameron, Louisiana Submitted by W. T. Block, Historian Submitted July 2004 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Submission #1 DUNCAN SMITH: CALCASIEU PARISH'S CONFEDERATE TRAITOR OR AMERICAN PATRIOT? By W. T. Block (Story suggested by Mrs. Sherry Manuel of Winnsboro, Louisiana) While the writer was growing up before World War II, he was one of several great grandchildren of Duncan Smith, a pioneer settler of Leesburg, now Cameron, Louisiana, who regarded their great grandfather as a traitor because he did not embrace the Confederate cause. And it was true--Smith had a $10,000 Confederate price tag on his head. It wasn't so much that Duncan Smith disliked the Confederate States of America so much as it was that he hated human slavery much more. Much more than a century in retrospect, it is perhaps understandable that many persons of pronounced Southern sympathies might still regard Dunc Smith in that fashion. However, despite a grandfather and several great uncles who were Confederate soldiers (two of whom died at the Battle of Mansfield), the writer can only conclude that the same Stars and Stripes that he swore allegiance to in World War II was the same "Old Glory" that Smith served in Civil War days. In fact, the writer had four great grandfathers scattered out from Johnson's Bayou to Grand Chenier, La. in 1862, three of whom refused the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy and two of whom were actively engaged as Union sympathizers. Of Scots-Irish extraction, Dunc Smith was born in North Carolina in 1810, but had resettled in Rankin County, Mississippi, with his parents and brother Edmond at some time during the 1820s. Family traditions maintain that about 1832, Smith was engaged in moving bands of Choctaw Indians from Brandon, Mississippi, to the Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. When work was slack on his cotton farm, he sometimes did survey work for the United States government. On January 9, 1834, he married Margaret "Peggy" Russell, daughter of the Rev. Jeremiah Russell (Rousselle), a War of 1812 veteran, and Margaret "Polly" Rhode Russell, both formerly of Charleston, South Carolina, and grand daughter of an American patriot who came to this country as an adjutant in the Marquis de Lafayette's army. Her parents had moved in 1825 with their entire Methodist Church congregation from Charleston, South Carolina to Rankin County, Mississippi, where Rev. Russell soon became the first Methodist missionary to the Choctaw tribe. In the 1850 Rankin County census, Dunc and Peggy Smith lived on a cotton farm next door to her parents. Smith owned $800 worth of real estate, but no slaves, and had eight children in his household, two of whom would eventually die young and were buried in Mississippi. Subsequently, two more children would be born to them in Mississippi and the last child in Louisiana. At some time during the early years of his life, Smith acquired an impassioned hatred of human slavery. Perhaps he had ample opportunity in Rankin County to witness the mistreatment and flogging of slaves, but there is no indication that he ever engaged in Abolitionist activities locally. If, however, he ever would voice his anti-slavery views publicly, he certainly would have generated the ire and rancor of all of his neighbors, and perhaps for that reason, he and his brother Edmond resettled their families in Lafayette Parish, La., in 1858. Either late in 1860 or early 1861, Duncan and Peggy Smith moved to Leesburg (now Cameron), La. then in Calcasieu Parish, but destined in January, 1870, to become the parish seat of newborn Cameron Parish. They built their new home on the east bank of the Calcasieu River, under the live oak trees, and near where the Cameron courthouse stands today. Perhaps the best record of Dunc Smith's life appeared in the Beaumont (Tx.) Enterprise of June 30, 1907, in an article entitled "How Cameron Parish, La. Received The Name It Bears." It was written by someone who claimed to have known Smith in Leesburg at the time the new parish was organized in 1870. As far as this writer can discern, only one comment about Smith by that author was untrue. He claimed that Dunc Smith and his parents were from the North, but had settled early in Mississippi. Actually, both Smith and each of his parents were born in North Carolina. The author wrote an interesting account about a Confederate 'conscripting vessel' that called at Leesburg in August, 1863, and read aloud the recent draft declaration of the Confederate Congress. The author likened this boat to the British press gangs of the War of 1812 - one either volunteered himself or he "was volunteered at gunpoint" for the Confederate Army. At the time, Dunc Smith was on the west side of the river in his skiff, and the conscripting boat, sensing that he was trying to escape, began firing musket volleys at him. Despite being hit in the leg by a minie ball, Smith kept on rowing until he reached the east bank. At that time, Peggy Smith suddenly appeared to help her husband, and the musket fire (which the author compared to the sounds of a "popcorn social") ceased when she arrived. Peggy Smith got her husband, then age 53, safely ashore and hid him in a sea cane marsh nearby. When the Civil War began in 1861, Dunc Smith had two grown sons, Jeremiah, who was age 18, and Phineas A. "Dick" Smith, age 26. Both would accompany their father on many trips when the latter was engaged in his Unionist activities, and P. A. Smith would later became the first parish clerk of Cameron Parish. A third son, John Smith, was age 17, but remained at home to care for his mother and sisters. It appears that Duncan Smith rode coastwise on the Union blockade ships as if he owned them. In 1862, two of his daughters (including the writer's grandmother Lou Ellen Smith Sweeney) went to school in New Orleans when that city was occupied by Gen. Ben "Beast" Butler's Federal Army, and the only way from there to the Calcasieu River was aboard some Union blockader. His first experience with the West Gulf Blockading Squadron occurred on October 2, 1862, when Acting Lieutenant Frederick Crocker entered the Calcasieu River aboard the blockader U. S. S. Kensington. When Smith informed Crocker that the Goosport steam blockade-runner Dan had just returned to the Calcasieu from a successful voyage to Mexico, Crocker decided to go upriver with only 14 sailors and a 6-pound boat howitzer aboard a small sloop and capture the Dan. During a 6-day voyage which brought the Bluejackets inland to a point 30 miles north of Lake Charles, Crocker succeeded in capturing the Dan and returning to the coast without a single shot being fired at him. In April, 1864, at a time when all Confederate troops in Louisiana were engaged in combat at the Battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, near Shreveport, Dunc Smith decided that it would be safe to anchor Union blockade gunboats in the Calcasieu and load the Mermentau Jayhawkers' herd of 450 stolen cattle and horses and to recruit Union sympathizers (usually referred to as 'refugees') for the United States Navy. On April 15, 1864, Dunc Smith, his sons Phineas and Jeremiah, and "6 or 8 other refugees" were in New Orleans, where they had sailed earlier on a Union blockader. Smith convinced Union General Ben Butler that, by burning some bridges along the coast, it would be safe to anchor gunboats while loading the stolen livestock, and without fear of Confederate attack. The following excerpts are from Lt. Benjamin Loring's official report of the Battle of Calcasieu Pass (published in OFFICIAL RECORDS, NAVIES, Ser. I, Vol. XXI, pp. 256-259), as follows: "To Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, Washington, Feb. 28, 1865, Sir: . . . .received order to proceed to Calcasieu Pass, La., with U. S. steamers "Wave" and "Granite City" and receive such 'refugees' as may be willing to enter the U. S. Navy, receiving further orders regarding the expedition from Mr. Smith whom I was directed to receive as a passenger. I left New Orleans on the evening of April 15 (1864). . . .(Delayed at Morgan City)." ". . . .Off Calcasieu Pass April 24. . . .Anchored two miles above the mouth of the Pass, opposite Mr. Smith's home. . . .From the 27th labored diligently, preparing to fulfill objects of my expedition, as I had understood it from Mr. Smith, collecting horses, saddles, and all arms that could be found among the citizens." ". . . .The bridges across Mud and Oyster Bayous were destroyed. Mr. Smith, who was an old resident of the place, assured me it was impossible for the enemy to cross Mud Bayou (on Beach Road to Johnson's Bayou) after the destruction of the bridges." ". . . .Gathering refugees to drive cattle (the stolen Jayhawker herd) and form a force of protection was one of my objects. . . .To do all this labor, there were but 25 (Union) soldiers and 8 or 10 refugees, who had returned from New Orleans with Mr. Smith and belonged to his party. Ten more refugees were added, and only ten, during the time I remained." ". . . .Mr. Smith was a very visionary (?) man and required constant watching to keep him at his assigned work. Each evening I met him and perfected arrangements for the following day's duties and the stationing of night pickets, who were composed of 'refugees" (Leesburg's Union sympathizers). . . .Using refugees for picket duty was a necessity." ". . . .The previous night (May 5) to my capture (at Battle of Calcasieu Pass), I met Mr. Smith near his house as usual, to arrange the pickets for the night. I always consulted him because he and his sons (Phineas and Jeremiah) were generally taking charge of the parties and acting as guides for the scouts. . . ." The remainder of that long letter detailed the debacle of the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, when following a 90-minute fight, the Sabine Pass garrison of 350 men captured two gunboats and 177 prisoners, with 14 Confederates and 8 Bluejackets killed. And although Dunc Smith found enough local 'refugees' to stand picket duties, he failed miserably in his hope of recruiting dissidents for the Union Navy. On the afternoon of May 6, 1864, the Confederates searched Smith's home, hoping to catch the arch-Unionist and collect his $10,000 bounty. Instead, Smith escaped by hiding under his wife's hoopskirts during the search. According to Galveston Weekly News of May 18, 1864, both of the river pilots, Duncan Smith of the Wave and Henry Clay Smith (no relation) of the Granite City, escaped capture by the Confederates. That night, Dunc Smith and a friend named Guil Broussard escaped to the marsh and remained hidden on North Island for the next year, returning to civilization only after their hair and beards had grown to their waists. Needless to say, when a radical Reconstruction government took control in Baton Rouge, La., Duncan Smith exercised an influence with that body not shared by many other Southwestern Louisiana people in post-bellum days. And in 1870, whenever Cameron Parish was carved out of parts of Calcasieu and Vermilion, Smith suggested to the legislature in the state capitol that the new parish be named after Simon Cameron, a former senator from Pennsylvania and Pres. Lincoln's first Secretary of War, for whom Smith had a great respect and admiration. At that time, there was hardly anyone in the new parish eligible for public office. To be sworn into office, a person had to take the "Ironclad Oath," affirming that he had neither born arms against the United States nor sworn allegiance to the Confederate States. And usually, only the very young, the very old, or the Union sympathizers qualified. His eligibility enabled Phineas Smith to become Cameron Parish's first clerk of court. On Sept. 13, 1865 and Aug. 22, 1879, two severe hurricanes struck Leesburg, leaving much death and destruction in their paths. Following the latter storm, the Galveston Daily News of Sept. 3, 1879 observed that the "dwelling houses of Capt. Tom Reynolds, Gus Williams, Joseph Cormier, and Duncan Smith are nowhere to be found" - each of them having been swept out to sea. Luckily, Smith and his family survived each hurricane, and they built their new home at Johnson's Bayou instead. And seven years later, they saw it torn to shreds by the giant whirlwind of Oct. 12, 1886. By 1885, Smith had developed what the oldtimers called "slow consumption," which was the earliest stage of tuberculosis. After the storm a physician suggested that he go out west for his health. The old Unionist, already age 76, was en route to his son's home in San Marcos, Texas, when he died at San Marcos in Dec. 12, 1886, and was buried in the San Marcos City Cemetery. Peggy Smith eventually returned to Johnson's Bayou, died there on Nov. 5, 1891, and her tombstone still stands in the well-kept Smith Cemetery on the R. L. Billot place on Smith Ridge Road. The latter two places were not named for Duncan Smith, but rather for another set of the writer's great grandparents, Frederick Smith (Schmidt) and Caroline Matilda Smith. Phineas A. Smith, who served much of his life as Cameron Parish clerk of court, eventually married at age 65 and sired two daughters. Until his death in 1923, he sometimes spoke of his service as a "Yankee spy" during the Civil War. At age 88, P. A. "Uncle Dick" Smith walked from Lake Charles to Sour Lake, Texas, to visit his youngest sister, but died of pneumonia while returning to Louisiana on foot. Phineas Smith Street street near the courthouse in Cameron is named for him. Of Dunc Smith's three older daughters, Caroline Smith married Frank Pleasant and reared a large family at Grand Chenier. Mary Ann Smith married Martin A. Crain in Mississippi, and they reared their family at Big Pecan Island. Her son, Dunc Crain, was sheriff of Cameron Parish for much of his life. Lou Ellen Smith (the writer's grandmother) married James Hill Sweeney of Grand Chenier, but after his death, she moved her family to Nederland, Texas, in 1906. Her children were double first cousins to everyone at Grand Chenier, and there was no one they could marry. Jeremiah Smith married Emilia Ann Bonsall of Grand Chenier and soon after, moved to Cisco, Texas. Austin B. Smith married Emma Levingston, sired five children, and was a Johnson's Bayou and Port Arthur merchant thereafter. At age 68, John Smith married a much younger woman, Lottie Fuller, and fathered two sons. He was an early- day Cameron Parish school teacher, farmer, and merchant at Johnson's Bayou, but moved to Port Arthur about 1910. Not to be outdone, the youngest daughter, Margaret, remained single until age 75, but eventually married at Sour Lake, Texas. And such were the annals of Duncan Smith, Calcasieu and Cameron parishes' arch-Unionist, who inadvertently led the United States Navy to a stinging defeat at the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, the last Civil War fight for control of the Texas-Louisiana coastline. Was Dunc a Confederate traitor? His neighbors and the Confederate Army certainly thought so, and obviously some of his own descendants share that view. Following the Battle of Calcasieu Pass, Smith would certainly have been executed for treason by the Confederates, if captured. Galveston Weekly News noted that he escaped capture at Leesburg (Cameron), despite the Confederate effort to do so. Perhaps, though, there is something to be said for a person who would risk the wrath of his neighbors, the welfare of his family, his capture, and even the firing squad rather than compromise the code of ethics he lived by. The Beaumont Enterprise writer, who knew Smith in 1870, added this comment: "Duncan Smith had opposed human slavery since long before John Brown's raid, and when the Civil War came on, his fiery opposition to it put him in bad odor with the people who favored it and fought for it. He was a man of fixed and inflexible opinions, an Abolitionist bitterly opposed to slavery. He was ready at the drop of a hat to die for that principle!" And yes, perhaps the outcome of the Civil War conferred some semblance of rectitude to Dunc Smith's principles. His allegiance was to the 'Land of Lincoln,' of which country we are all citizens today, and he fought for the freedom and equality of all men, regardless of color. {The American Civil War was utter heartbreak on both sides of this writer's family. His paternal grandfather Block was a Confederate soldier, who deserted the Confederate Army, and Block had 3 more brothers, all cannoneers, in the same Co B, Spaight's Bn., at Sabine Pass. Another great grandfather, Frederick Smith, was an ardent Unionist at Johnson's Bayou, La. Two maternal great uncles, Pvt. Isaac Bonsall and Lt. Bill McCall, both of Mouton's Division and Grand Chenier, died at the Battle of Mansfield, La., and another great uncle, Pvt. Hugh William Hickok of Gen. Taylor's Confederates, was killed at Bayou Bourbouef. This article originally appeared in KINFOLKS, publication of Southwest Louisiana Genealogical Society, Box 5652, Lake Charles, Louisiana, but is now copyrighted by Cameron (Parish, La.) Pilot, issues of July 25 and Aug. 1, 1996. Many of the writer's antecedants refused to speak to each other for years after the war because of different allegiances generated during that conflict. When his great grandfather George F. Block refused to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederacy, Block stated: "I came to the United States to be a part of it, not to fight against it!"} ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Submission #2 Great-grandpa wasn’t popular in the South by W. T. Block Reprinted from Beaumont Enterprise, September 28, 1998, Pg. 6A NEDERLAND --My great-grandpa Duncan Smith was about as popular among his slave-holding neighbors as a skunk in church. Most Southerners expected an Abolitionist to be from some Northern state, but Dunc Smith and each of his parents were born in North Carolina, and Dunc was raised in Brandon, Miss. So how could a Southern boy, accustomed to watching slaves from the cradle, become an ardent Abolitionist? Probably he had to witness at times such extreme brutality to slaves that he could no longer endure it. Smith moved his family from Mississippi to Indian Bayou, La., in 1858, and later to Cameron, La., in 1861. Smith did not hate the Confederate States so much as he hated slavery much more. His biographer, who knew Smith in 1870, wrote that: "... Duncan Smith had opposed human slavery since long before John Brown’s raid, and when the Civil War came on, his fiery opposition to it put him in bad odor with those who favored it, an Abolitionist bitterly opposed to slavery. He was ready at the drop of a hat to die for the principle ..." (Beaumont Enterprise, June 30, 1907.) Duncan Smith and his adult sons Phineas and Jerry rode aboard the Union offshore blockade ships at will. Smith also served as a Union spy. On Aug. 2, 1863, a Confederate "recruiting" ship read the Confederate Draft Declaration at Cameron. The ship operated like a British press gang, obtaining "recruits’ at gunpoint if necessary. Although 53 years old, Smith was rowing his skiff across the Calcasieu River, when the recruiters," assuming he was trying to escape, shot him through the leg. Smith’s wife got him ashore and hid him in the marsh. In April, 1864, Smith acted as an agent for the Mermentau Jayhawkers for the sale to the U.S. Navy of 450 stolen cattle and horses. After completing the deal at New Orleans, Smith piloted the U.S. gunboat Wave up the Calcasieu River, where it dropped anchor in front of Smith’s home. A few days later, the Sabine Pass Confederate garrison attacked the anchored gunboats; Wave and Granite City, which surrendered after a 90-minute battle. That afternoon the Confederates searched Smith’s home, hopeful of capturing the arch-Unionist, as well as the $10,000 bounty on his head. Smith hid out for one hour under his wife’s hoop-skirts, and after the soldiers left, she hid him in the marsh, where he remained for the next year. My grandmother reported that her father’s ragged hair and whiskers hung down to his waist when he finally came out of the marsh. Our nation remembers the 358,000 Union soldiers who died trying to end slavery. It even remembers the 260,000 Confederates who died to preserve slavery, although only one of each 20 actually owned slaves. However, it does not remember the Southern Abolitionists like Duncan Smith of Cameron or three others from. Jefferson County, namely, James G. Taylor, Henry Clay Smith (no relation), and L. W. Pennington. After Taylor’s capture at Matagorda for the third time, he was executed by the Confederates, and his probate file at Beaumont verifies the year of his death. W. T. Block Is a Nederland resident.