Robert Hardy Smith (1816-1878)

Robert Hardy Smith was born in North Carolina in 1816.

He was appointed to West Point but did not graduate.

He taught school in Virginia and Alabama, briefly studied medicine, and then took up the law. He began private practice in 1835, in Livingston, Alabama.

In 1849 he was elected to the state legislature and embarked upon a political career as a Whig. Although generally in opposition to the states rights extremists, Smith loyally accepted Alabama's secession, and served in the Confederate Congress early in the war.

In 1862 he organized the 26th Alabama and became its colonel, but ill health compelled him to resign the position.

Smith died in 1878.