Montgomery County TN Archives Biographies.....Smith, Alphonso F. 1840 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com October 25, 2005, 4:45 am

Author: Will T. Hale

   ALPHONSO F. SMITH. Captain Smith has been long and prominently identified

with the tobacco industry and is now a leading tobacco factor or commission

merchant in the thriving little city of Clarksville, the capital of Montgomery

county. It was his to render most faithful and valiant service as a soldier of

the Confederacy in the Civil war. and at the close of the great struggle he was

retired with the rank of captain. He is one of the honored and loyal citizens of

Clarksville and is a business man of distinctive ability and progressiveness,

known for his sterling character and for his buoyant and genial nature.



   The Old Dominion commonwealth, that gracious cradle of much of our national

history, figures as the native heath of Captain Smith, and his paternal and

maternal ancestors were numbered among the colonial settlers of that state. The

Captain was born in Louisa county, Virginia, on the 19th of December, 1840, and

he is the eldest and only survivor of the three children born to Joel W. and

Sallie P. (Carroll) Smith, both likewise natives of Virginia, where the former

was born in 1816 and the latter in 1818. The father became a prosperous planter

in Virginia, where he continued to reside until 1853, when he removed with his

family to Todd county, Kentucky, where he became the owner of a considerable

tract of land and was prominently identified with agricultural pursuits during

the residue of his active career. After his retirement he maintained his home in

Clarksville, Tennessee, until his death, at the age of sixty-nine years; his

loved and devoted wife having been summoned to eternal rest at the age of ninety

years. Both were consistent and earnest members of the Methodist Episcopal

church, South, and in politics he was aligned as an uncompromising advocate of

the principles of the Democratic party.



   Captain Alphonso F. Smith gained his rudimentary education in his native

state and was a lad of about thirteen years at the time of the family removal to

Kentucky, where he was reared to manhood and was afforded the advantages of the

common schools of the period. As a young man he became identified with the

hardware business at Clarksville, where he was employed for some time in the

establishment of the firm of Fall & Turnley. Finally he became associated with

Mr. Turnley in the same line of business, under the firm name of Turnley, Fox &

Smith, and he thus continued in active business until the war between the states

was precipitated, when he subordinated all personal interests to tender his aid

in defense of the cause of the Confederacy. On November 29, 1861, Captain Smith

enlisted as a member of Company A, Forty-ninth Tennessee Infantry, and he was

soon promoted from the position of first sergeant to that of first lieutenant of

his company. He served as lieutenant until the close of the war and it was his

to live up to the full tension of hardships and perils incidental to the long

and weary conflict between the North and the South. He made a most gallant

record and was an able and popular officer. With his command he participated in

many important engagements, and at the battle of Bentonville, North Carolina, he

received a severe wound, though he was not long incapacitated by. reason of the

same. He served seven months as inspector general on the staff of Brigadier

General Quarles and during the last year of the war he was inspector general of

Warsaw's division of Stuart's army corps. Among the more important engagements

in which Captain Smith took part may be mentioned the following: Fort Donelson,

Port Hudson, Peachtree Creek, New Hope Church, Pine Mountain. Kenesaw Mountain,

Franklin, and Bentonville. He was with his command at Greensboro, North

Carolina, at the time of the final surrender and there received his parole. The

Captain has never abated his interest in his old comrades, whose ranks are

rapidly thinning through the agency of the one invincible foe, death, and he

signified this by his affiliation with the United Confederate Veterans.



   After the war Captain Smith returned to Clarksville, Tennessee, where he

engaged in the tobacco commission business and prepared to do his part in

reviving the prostrate industries of the south. In 1871 he removed to the city

of Louisville, Kentucky, where he was engaged in business as tobacco broker for

the ensuing six years. Thereafter he passed fourteen years in New York City,

where he served in the position of tobacco inspector, as an expert authority in

regard to qualities, grades and values. At the expiration of the period noted,

in 1892, Captain Smith returned to his old home in Clarksville, and here he

finds his associations most grateful, both in business and social lines. He has

here continued his work as a tobacco inspector and is also doing a substantial

business as a tobacco broker, with important interests in one of the extensive

"loose-floor" tobacco warehouses of this section of the state. The Captain has a

wide circle of friends in this community, and holds secure place in popular

confidence and esteem. He is unwavering in his allegiance to the cause of the

Democratic party and is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of

Elks and with Forbes Bivouac.



   On the 22d of April, 1861, shortly before going forth to jeopardize his life

as a soldier of the Confederacy, Captain Smith was united in marriage to Miss

Imogene Herring, who was born and reared in Montgomery county, Tennessee, and

who is a daughter of the late Owen W. and Catherine (Ross) Herring, her father

having been a large farmer and general trader by vocation. Captain and Mrs.

Smith became the parents of three sons and four daughters, and of the number

only two are living, Imogene, who is the widow of James S. Lupton and who

resides in Clarksville, and Miss Mable Walton Smith, who remains at the parental

home.



Additional Comments:
From:



A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans : the leaders and representative men in

commerce, industry and modern activities

by Will T. Hale

Chicago:  Lewis Pub. Co.,  1913





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