Smith, Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson Smith was born 1808 in Virginia. He entered Texas in 1835 as a member of the Georgia Battalion and saw action during the Siege of Béxar. Afterward he was attached to James Walker Fannin’s Goliad command. As a member of William Ward’s contingent Smith, a private in Uriah I. Bullock’s company, fought at the battle of Refugio. He retreated from Refugio with others in Ward’s command but was later captured near Victoria. He was one of sixteen men detained by the Mexicans at Victoria on March 23 to build a boat and was thus spared from the Goliad Massacre. He was, however, twice wounded, by a bullet in the hand during the battle of Refugio, and by a bayonet in the buttock while a prisoner. Late in April 1836 he escaped from the Mexicans and on June 15 was honorably discharged by Thomas Jefferson Rusk. He died on February 16, 1890, and was buried in Morton Cemetery, Richmond.

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