 Captain
Solomon P. Smith of the "Iron Hearted
Regiment" was born in Clifton Park, Saratoga
Co., New York on 13 Aug 1830 and was the son of
Richard and Sally. At the age of thirteen, his
father Richard died and he went to live with his
sister Mindwell, wife of John P. Terpening, in
Illinois. He returned to his native New York in
1854 and worked as a millwright.During the early part of
the Civil War, he organized and was captain of a
company of soldiers who were mustered into
service in August of 1862 as Company H of the
115th Infantry, New York State Volunteers.
After
preparing three days of cooked rations, the 115th
struck tents by ten in the morning on the 15th
day of August in 1864 and were on the march. They
crossed the James river at midnight on pontoons
to Deep Bottom, and prepared for action.
Initially, the Union forces were successful in
holding off the rebels, but the Rebs then
received reinforcements and the 115th, who had
been maintaining the ground, found themselves
"flanked by a superior force, and were raked
by a most deadly cross fire which told fearfully
in their ranks."
The
115th regiment had entered the battlefield with
one hundred and seventy-five muskets, but after
three days of heavy fighting only eighty men were
left uninjured. The loss of lives was enormous on
both sides. During this battle (now known as Deep
Bottom II or New Market Hill) which took place
near Richmond in Henrico Co., VA , every
commissioned officer in the regiment had been
killed or wounded including Solomon whose left
arm was shot off at the elbow. He had been
previously wounded at the battles in Olustee and
Petersburg, and had in all received wounds to the
arm, foot, leg and cheek. Due to his disability,
Solomon was discharged on the 16th of January and
applied for a disability pension in 1867.
In
James H. Clark's 1865 "The Iron Hearted
Regiment" he writes the following:
"Captain Sol. P. Smith was born in Clifton
Park, Saratoga Co., N.Y., Aug. 13th, 1830. He
began to recruit the first company for the 115th
Regiment in July, 1862. He was and is yet,
"loyal to the back bone," and made some
stirring addresses before the people, urging them
to sacrifice everything and protect the honor and
life of the nation. Like a true man and a brave
soldier, he accompanied his command to the field,
and fought with it in every battle until he was
disabled, and thus compelled to leave the
service.
If
ever there was a brave officer in the Union army,
the subject of this sketch was one. At Olustee he
commanded his company with the greatest skill and
gallantry, and when the battle closed he marched
it off in perfect order. When the Union line was
broken at all points, and it was said the rebels
were marching to attack, he deployed his company
across the road and in the woods, stopped every
Union soldier who approached, and soon had a new
line of battle formed of several hundred men. He
was struck by a spent bullet. He was provost
marshal at Pilatka, Florida, and with his company
made some daring raids into the interior of the
state, capturing numbers of the enemy, and
keeping the different rebel camps in constant
commotion. For the great success attending one of
these raids, the captain and his men were noticed
in general orders and officially complemented by
General Hatch. General Gilmore also expressed his
thanks to the captain for the zeal and ability
displayed by him on that occasion. He had nearly
sixty Union men in the different rebel camps in
Florida, who gave him early information of any
movement about to take place among the enemy.
At
Petersburg and Coal Harbor he built most of the
advance line of works in front of the 3d Brigade,
and at the last named place engaged in mining a
rebel fort. With his company he aided the people
of Florida were accustomed to say of him, that he
did more work than any general ever in command
there; and although he was very strict, yet both
Union men and rebels honored, loved, and feared
him."
After
the war Solomon became a member of Lafayette Post
No. 140 of the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the
Republic) in New York City, and was a Baptist in
his religious beliefs. An inventor, he received a
patent for an air current governor which was used
in furnaces and was issued on 29 June 1909.
Solomon
served as the Chaplain for the Washington Dept of
D.A.R. until his death which occurred on 05 Oct
1918 at the home of his daughter, Kate S. Potter
in Seattle, King Co., Washington.
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