ung Smith was brought up under proper
influences and sent forth with the highest ideals of his profession. He
graduated in the "fives" of his class. He was commissioned as a Brevet
Second Lieutenant in the corps of Topographical Engineers, and served
with it continuously till, for convenience and simplicity of
administration, it was merged with the Corps of Engineers after the
outbreak of the Rebellion. At the request of his chief, he gave up
two-thirds of the usual graduating leave of absence to lend a hand to
an under-manned surveying party on Lake Erie. His services were from
the first of the scientific and useful rather than the showy sort. They
brought him a wide range of valuable experience, extending from the
surveys of the great lakes to explorations of Texas and Arizona,
covering a period of seven years, two of which were spent under Joseph
E. Johnston and William H. Emory, then of the same corps, while engaged
in establishing the new boundary line between Mexico and the United
States. During his service in that region he located the stage and
wagon-route from San Antonio to El Paso, surveyed a part of the Rio
Grande Valley, and familiarized himself with the topography and
resources of Northwestern Texas and the state of Chihuahua in Mexico.
Later he was transferred to Florida and made surveys for a ship canal
across the peninsula from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico.
Subsequently he had charge of the Eleventh District in the light-house
service with his headquarters at Detroit. He then became Assistant
Secretary, and finally on the retirement of his friend, Captain
Franklin, Engineer Secretary of the Light-House Board. He had
previously asked for service with the army in Mexico, but this had been
denied. His service in Texas and Florida had brought him in contact
with a number of officers who afterwards became distinguished in the
Civil War. Among the most notable of these were Buell, Joseph E.
Johnston, McClellan, Meade, Burnside and Emory. His light-house service
gave him a friendly association with Commodore Shubrick and Captain
(afterwards Admiral) Jenkins of the navy, General Totten of the army,
Professor Bache of the Coast survey and Professor Henry of the
Smithsonian Institute, and opened to him a wide acquaintance with the
scientific thought of the day. While connected with the Light-House
board he planned and supervised the construction of four first-class
light-houses, one for Montauk Point, two fo