Faces of the 12th Virginia Infantry ("Petersburg Regiment"): Hugh Ritchie Smith, Helped Cease Fire after Longstreet's Wounding

Caption:  Hugh Ritchie Smith

Credit:  The City of Petersburg:  The Book of its Chamber of Commerce

Captain Hugh Richie Smith, a former clerk, had enlisted in the 12th Virginia's Company C, the Petersburg New Grays, on April 19, 1861.  He became a corporal on September 1, 1861, a sergeant on May 1, 1862, sergeant major on June 1, 1863, and the regiment's adjutant and a captain on November 21, 1863.  His brother was Sgt. William Crawford Smith, the architect of the Germanna Ford bridge in April 1863 and the 12th's last color bearer.  

At the battle of the Wilderness, after the 41st Virginia (or maybe the two companies of the 12th with the 41st) had shot Longstreet at the climax of his flank attack, Hugh Smith waved a handkerchief atop the point of his sword. The musketry quickly stopped. The eight companies with the 12th’s colors recognized the troops firing on them as men of their own brigade.

On June 12, 1864, at Cold Harbor, Hugh Smith informed Pvt. George S. Bernard of Company E ,author of War Talks of Confederate Veterans (1892) and Civil War Talks (2012), that the regiment had suffered 159 casualties since the campaign’s beginning, mostly in the Wilderness and at Spotsylvania.

At the climax of the battle of Globe Tavern on August 19, 1864, according to The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864, with the 12th and the rest of the Virginia Brigade facing envelopment, brigadier David A. Weisiger gave his horse to Hugh Smith and sent him to tell division commander William Mahone that the Unionists threatened to surround Weisiger’s force. On the way, Smith met courier Robert Randolph Henry bearing an order from Mahone for Weisiger to withdraw and reform.

During the retreat from the battle Burgess Mill on October 27, 1864, Smith Hugh Smith lent his horse to Cpl. John R. Turner of the 12th's Company E, the Petersburg Riflemen. The Riflemen’s Pvt. Richard Henry May mounted the animal, took Turner up behind him and eventually took him to safety through dark woods that helped swell the numbers of the 12th captured to 92, three of them wounded. 

Captain Smith surrendered at Appomattox.  After the war, he manufactured soap and candles and served as a state legislator.