GENERAL KIRBY-SMITH, Annotated and Illustrated

This is the respected and definitive work on Gen. Edmund Kirby-Smith, CSA, upon which later biographers heavily relied--now made better with helpful annotations by an academic historian with the addition of over 30 illustrations. Smith was born to Connecticut parents who had settled in Florida. He received a military education at the United States Military Academy and embarked upon a career in the US army. He saw action in the Mexican War and served under Robert E. Lee on the plains of Texas. The book chronicles his resignation from a promising army career to join in the defense of the South, for he considered himself first and foremost a Floridian. Interesting annotations are added by the editor throughout, including information about Kirby-Smith's mother, who although over 80 years old, became a formidable spy for the Confederacy. The book also gives insight into the Christian character of Smith, and his close friendship with his body servant, who was later educated by the Kirby-Smith family and who became one of the first black physicians in Florida. His post-bellum wanderings and woes are followed, and the book concludes with a description of the happiness he found as a professor at the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. Edmund Kirby-Smith was the last Confederate general to surrender and the last living general of either army.