This magnificent portrait photograph is of James Jackson Manning Smith.
About 40 years before that picture was taken he was a 23 year old Private in the 31st Georgia Infantry on the Maryland Campaign of 1862, though he spent most of it in a US Army hospital in Frederick, MD.
He was later appointed a regimental musician, was wounded at least slightly 3 times, but survived the war without serious disability.
James took his family west from Georgia to Texas in 1875 and had advanced his occupation from carpenter and millwright to become an architect in Coryell County, TX by 1900.
You’ll notice two badges on his jacket.
On the left is his Southern Cross of Honor: a commemorative medal given to Confederate veterans by the United Daughters of Confederacy beginning in 1900. Nearly 79,000 were awarded by 1912.
On the right, a souvenir badge from the 12th annual national gathering of the United Confederate Veterans at Dallas, TX in April 1902. He was one of more than 125,000 people who were in town for that event.
Notes
That fine photograph is from a collection hosted by the Burnet County (TX) RootsWeb team. The original is probably in the Burnet County History Center inside the Herman Brown Free Library, Burnet, TX.
Among other photos in that collection is this one of James and his wife Catherine taken sometime before her death in 1894.
Leave a Reply