Smith, Francis Henney
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Smith, Francis Henney
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First Superintendent of VMI (1839 to 1890) and principal figure who institutionalized the Lost Cause at VMI.
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Francis H. Smith was born in 1812 and died in 1890. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1833 and served as the first Superintendent of VMI from 1839 to his retirement in 1890. As VMI's leader before, during, and after the Civil War, Smith was the most important figure in the institutionalization of the Lost Cause at VMI.
Before the Civil War, Smith defended the South's interests in slavery and secession. Smith enslaved at least nine people and supported colonization schemes to relocate free African Americans in the Shenandoah Valley to Liberia, based on the premise that free Black people had no place in the South. In December 1859, Smith commanded the VMI Corps of Cadets at the execution of the abolitionist John Brown. In a letter to Samuel McDowell Reid Smith on March 11, 1861, Smith wrote that the North had an "unmitigated hatred of Slavery" and advocated for secession to preserve slavery. In 1861-62, Smith briefly served as a colonel in the 9th Virginia Infantry. In 1863, after the death of Confederate general "Stonewall" Jackson, a former VMI instructor, Smith remarked in a General Order that Jackson was "peculiarly our own," foreshadowing the emergence of Jackson as a Lost Cause icon as well as VMI's claim to his legacy. Responding to a request by Confederate General John C. Breckenridge, Smith sent the VMI Corps of Cadets, under the command of Commandant Scott Shipp, to fight at the Battle of New Market. After Hunter's Raid on the VMI post in June 1864, Smith oversaw the evacuation of VMI and reconvened the corps of cadets in Richmond for the duration of the war.
After the Civil War, Smith emerged as an important proponent of the Lost Cause. He adopted a strategy of framing VMI as a victim of the Union army in order to gain financial and political support for VMI, which risked closure during Reconstruction because of financial exigencies and the destruction of much of the post in 1864. Celebrating Jackson and the Corps of Cadets' action at the 1864 Battle of New Market, and contrasting these figures with the wartime destruction of the VMI post, was a way for Smith to articulate VMI's contribution to the Confederacy in order to elevate its status in the Lost Cause movement. Ultimately, Smith sought to monetize the Lost Cause in order to secure funding and prestige for VMI.
VMI's administration building, completed in 1964, bears Smith's name. There is a statue of Smith in front of Smith Hall as well as a portrait of Smith in his VMI uniform and a quote by Smith in the building's lobby.
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1812
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1890
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Virginia Military Institute
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Virginia Military Institute
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Commemorations and Memorials Naming and Review Committee. “Status of Confederate Iconography on Post,” April 2022.
Sawyer, Kaylyn L. "The Literal Reconstruction of VMI: Resolved to Be." The Gettysburg Compiler: On the Front Lines of History. 156 (2016). https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/compiler/156
Smith, Francis H. Discourse on the Life and Character of Lt. Gen. Thos. J. Jackson, (C. S. A.) Late Professor in the Virginia Military Institute. Richmond: Ritchie and Dunnavant, 1863. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Discourse_on_the_life_and_character_of_Lt._Gen._Thos._J._Jackson%2C_%28C._S._A.%29_late_professor_in_the_Virginia_Military_Institute_%28IA_discourseonlifec01smit%29.pdf
Smith, Francis H. "The inner life of the V. M. I. cadet: its responsibilities and its privileges: introductory address to the corps of cadets at the Virginia Military Institute, on the resumption of the academic exercises, September 10, 1866."
Smith, Francis H. “Semi-Annual Report of the Virginia Military Institute, January 1878.”
Virginia Military Institute, January 1878. Office of the Superintendent. Virginia
Military Institute Archives.
https://digitalcollections.vmi.edu/digital/collection/p15821coll21/id/1820/rec/20.
Smith, Francis H. The Virginia Military Institute,
its building and re-building. Lynchburg, Va. J. B. Bell, 1912. https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100495493
Smith, Francis H. “VMI General Orders Concerning Death of General Stonewall Jackson, May
1863,” May 1863. Office of the Superintendent. Virginia Military Institute Archives.
https://digitalcollections.vmi.edu/digital/collection/p15821coll14/id/1027/rec/38.
Smith, Francis H., and Edwin L. Dooley. “Francis H. Smith Official Correspondence.
Secession Crisis Letters, 1860-1861. Transcriptions.,” 1861 1860. Office of the
Superintendent. Virginia Military Institute Archives. https://digitalcollections.vmi.edu/digital/collection/p15821coll14/id/552/rec/15.
Smith, Francis H. General Orders concerning death of General Stonewall Jackson, May 1863. https://digitalcollections.vmi.edu/digital/collection/p15821coll14/id/1027/rec/38
Virginia Military Institute. “Inventory and Review of VMI Monuments and Memorials Related to Confederate Iconography,” January 29, 2021.
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