Nansemond County Virginia USGenWeb Archives Obituaries.....Smith, Otis S. Sr., 1938 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/vafiles.htm ************************************************ OTIS SPOTSWOOD SMITH, SR. Many Hardships Endured By O. S. Smith In Youth Saw Mother Killed by Bullet as Family Tried To Escape Cross Fire of Two Armies In War Between the States; Long Leading Merchant and Officer of Farmers Bank (The following article was prepared for the News-Herald by Wilbur E. MacClenny, Nansemond historian and lifelong friend of the late O.S. Smith. Sr.) BY W. E. MacCLENNY On Saturday afternoon there passed away a unique character in the person of Mr. Otis Spotswood Smith, Sr. He was one of the few connecting links between the present and the past. Coming from a family of keen intellect on both sides, he inherited the faculty of keen observation, and it was shown in him even in childhood. On his paternal tide his ancestors were from Maryland, and brought with them the enterprising characteristics of that state, engaging in the lumber business, and some say in shipbuilding. On the maternal side, his grandfather represented Virginia in the Convention of 1861 which passed the ordinance of secession, and was one of the foremost lawyers of his day. Another ancestor was with John Paul Jones and in the battle of the Bon Homme Richard and the Sarapis, and wrote the account of many voyages, which was published in one of the leading magazines of the country at the time John Paul Jones' bones were brought to America for burial. The original manuscript now reposes in the U.S. Naval Academy library. The writer has known Mr. Smith for much over a half century, and always found him very entertaining. and interesting in his accounts of Suffolk during his childhood, while this community was in the throes of the War between the States. At that time the family was living at what was later known as "Brothers" place on the N.C. highway. After Suffolk was evacuated by the Confederates, the Federals posted a guard at the gate, and remained there for some time. The historian of the 112th New York Infantry, mentions the fact that the family was of a very high class, and had even cared for some of their men when they were sick, as a matter of humanitarianism, furnishing them with milk and eggs. In April 1863 Gen. James Longstreet's Corps of the C.S.A. surrounded Suffolk, and it so happened that the Smith house was between the lines in the skirmish that followed. The family had to take to the cellar, and then to the potato house, and as soon as the firing subsided they tried to make the woods for protection. The father with the larger children, and the mother with an infant in her arms were nearly to the woods when a ball struck her, and turning to her husband she said, "Husband I am shot." Before medical aid could reach her she was dead. Her body had to be brought into Suffolk in a cart for burial. The other children reached a rude log house in the woods, and there a pit was dug under the house, in which they stayed for some days, later being brought into the town to relatives. This happened before the siege was over, and Mr. Smith had on his mind a picture of many stirring events that took place. One of them was when Huger's battery at Hill's Point was captured, and the Confederate prisoners were brought into Suffolk and paraded up and down the streets. When one of them would not tell what he knew about the movements of the Confederate troops, they took him to an old blacksmith shop in the rear of where the Grace home now stands on North Main street, and placed his hand in a vice [sic; vise], and nearly ruined it in that way, but he was true pluck and would tell nothing. Another was when the Federals misunderstood orders and cut down the railroad bridge over Shingle Creek, when it was intended to cut down the one over Smith's Creek west of Suffolk, and when the next train came up, engine and cars all went into the creek. But the most vivid of all was his description of the battle of Nansemond river, on May 3rd, 1863. This is mentioned by all the Federal historians we have seen. Mr. Smith was on the top of an out house on the lot where Mr. J.B. Pruden lives, and as a child viewed the fight. Especially did he mention seeing Col. Goldring, on a flea-bit gray horse riding from one part of the field to another, and he said it did not take the Confederate sharpshooters long to spot him, he was soon dead. After the battle was over, he with other boys watched them bring in the dead and wounded, placing them in the old M.E. Church (Rawls Apartments) which was used as an operating room. Before the surgeons' tasks were over there was a pile of legs and arms thrown out of the back window nearly to the sill. Many he saw taken to what is now the Webb home nearly opposite, and the Masonic lodge, and Baptist Church were also used. He also recounted vividly the charge of Gen. Matt Ransom's cavalry through the streets of Suffolk in March 1864, and of seeing wounded Confederates taken to the house that stood where the Fashion Shop now stands, where several of them died and were buried on the west hill of Cedar Hill Cemetery. Those were the bones that were unearthed some time ago there. After the war he recalled that all had to be careful about what was saw, lest some of their friends who had been in the Confederate army might be hailed up and punished. The war over, he endured the hardships of the youth of his day and then embarked is the mercantile business with Mr. W.W. Ballard, and the name of Ballard and Smith soon became known far and wide for its honest and fair dealings with the public, and for the high class merchandise, and the personality of its clerks. He was a director and vice-president of the Farmers' Bank of Nansemond for a very long time, and his judgment was regarded as very good by Mr. William H. Jones, the cashier of the bank. He had been an officer in the Christian Church, and its Sunday school for many years, and made an efficient one, and he and his advice will be greatly missed. [photo, captioned:] FUNERAL TODAY [captioned:] Otis S. Smith, Sr., for more than half a century leader in mercantile business, who succumbed Saturday afternoon. Otis Spotswood SMITH, merchant, b. 12 Dec 1856, Nansemond Co., d. 25 Jun 1938, Suffolk, interred in Cedar Hill Cemetery (Block C, Lot 10*), Suffolk, "Suffolk (VA) News-Herald," Vol. 16, No. 83, Mon., June 27, 1938, p. 8 *Additional information: His parents are also buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery. Cedar Hill list, an extension of the Southampton County Historical Society {SCHS} Cemetery Project: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/cemeteries/cedar_s.txt Photos of his gravestone - added by Hixburg23958 & Steve Poole - are posted with Find a Grave Memorial #15709423. D.Cert. #13579 (Suffolk #188), gives sn/o Geo.R. Smith, b. Nansemond Co., & Judith E. Kilby [mis-read Kelly], b. Suffolk; b. 12 Dec 1856, Nansemond Co., d. 25 Jun 1938, Suffolk. His wife obits ("Suffolk News-Herald," Jan. 27 & 30, 1937, and donated) are posted at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/obits/s530l6ob.txt A photo of his mother - added by Jake Dog - is posted with Find a Grave Memorial #15710207. An article on her death ("Richmond Enquirer," June 30, 1863, p. 4, reprinted from the "Petersburg Express," June 26, 1863) is posted at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/newspapers/yankeeba139gnw.txt Several accounts of the incident are given in Brian Steele Wills' "The War Hits Home," pp. 142-43. Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by File Manager Matt Harris (zoobug64@aol.com). file at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/va/nansemond/obits/s530o2ob.txt