James Smith

Fought his gun with skill and courage despite heavy fire.

James Smith was born in Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, in 1826. Like many Irishmen of the nineteenth century, his life eventually carried him across the Atlantic to the United States, where the American Civil War would place him in one of the most important naval battles of the conflict. By September 1863, Smith had entered the United States Navy and was serving during a period when Union sea power was tightening its blockade of the Confederacy and attacking the remaining ports that sustained the Southern war effort.

Smith was assigned to USS Richmond, a steam-powered sloop-of-war that had already seen extensive Civil War service. Aboard Richmond he rose to the rating of Captain of the Forecastle. During combat he also served as captain of a gun, a position requiring discipline, technical skill, leadership among the gun crew, and the ability to continue functioning under the extreme noise, smoke, confusion, and danger of naval battle.

By the summer of 1864, Mobile Bay, Alabama, had become one of the Confederacy's most important remaining Gulf strongholds. Its defenses included Confederate forts, gunboats, underwater mines, and the powerful ironclad ram CSS Tennessee. Union naval forces prepared for a major attempt to force their way into the bay and break Confederate control of the area.

On August 5, 1864, Smith and USS Richmond entered the Battle of Mobile Bay. Richmond moved into action against Confederate defenses while enemy fire swept across the Union ships. Smith remained at his gun as the battle intensified. His Medal of Honor citation records that Richmond suffered damage and lost men while Confederate fire raked her decks, yet Smith continued fighting his gun with skill and courage throughout the prolonged engagement.

The danger was sustained rather than momentary. Smith's responsibility required him to keep his gun operating while the ship maneuvered through an active naval battlefield and exchanged fire with Confederate forces. Around him, men were being wounded or killed and the ship itself was taking damage. Despite those conditions, he continued performing his combat duties instead of abandoning his station.

The battle eventually resulted in the surrender of CSS Tennessee and successful Union attacks against the defenses around Fort Morgan. The victory at Mobile Bay was strategically important because it strengthened Union control of the Gulf Coast and further restricted the Confederacy's ability to use Mobile as a major port. For Smith, however, the battle also became the defining moment of his military career.

His conduct on August 5 was formally recognized with the Medal of Honor. General Order No. 45, dated December 31, 1864, recorded the recognition of sailors whose conduct during Civil War naval operations had distinguished them in battle. Smith's decoration honored his personal courage and effectiveness as a gun captain aboard USS Richmond while under heavy enemy fire.

The Medal of Honor itself was still a young decoration when Smith earned it. Congress had authorized the Navy Medal of Honor during the Civil War, creating a national award for sailors and Marines whose conduct demonstrated exceptional gallantry or other distinguished service. Smith therefore belonged to the earliest generation of recipients of what developed into the United States military's highest decoration for valor.

His Civil War naval service is also represented by the Navy Civil War Campaign Medal. Unlike the Medal of Honor, this was not an individual decoration for a single act of heroism. It was established years after the Civil War to recognize qualifying naval service during the conflict. In Smith's case, it represents his wider wartime service in the United States Navy, while the Medal of Honor commemorates the exceptional courage he displayed during the Battle of Mobile Bay.

After leaving wartime naval service, Smith returned to civilian life in New York. During the 1870s he worked in maritime trades, including employment connected with shipbuilding and rigging at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. His experience around the water extended beyond naval service; surviving accounts also associate him with diving and with the developing world of competitive and recreational swimming in the New York area.

Smith married in Manhattan in 1870 and became the father of three children. His postwar years were therefore very different from the violent hours he had experienced aboard Richmond. Like thousands of Civil War veterans, he moved from military service back into working civilian life, carrying with him the memory of a conflict that had reshaped the United States.

His life ended in New York on October 31, 1881. He was only in his mid-fifties. Although his Medal of Honor ensured that his wartime courage had been officially recorded, his burial history later became an important part of his legacy. Decades after his death, efforts were made to give the Civil War sailor a resting place more closely associated with his recognized military service.

More than a century after the Battle of Mobile Bay, Smith was reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery, where his grave now preserves his identity as a Medal of Honor recipient. The long interval between his death and his burial at Arlington reflects how historical recognition can continue to evolve generations after a veteran's lifetime.

James Smith's legacy rests most firmly on the events of August 5, 1864. He was not commanding the fleet or directing the battle from an admiral's quarterdeck. He was a working sailor responsible for keeping a gun in action while his ship was being struck and men around him were falling. He stayed at that station and continued fighting. His Medal of Honor preserved that moment of courage, while the Navy Civil War Campaign Medal represents the wider wartime service that brought him to Mobile Bay. Together, they commemorate a sailor whose determination under fire became part of one of the Union Navy's defining victories of the American Civil War.