Martin Luther Smith

Martin Luther Smith (b. September 9, 1819, in Danby, New York - d. July 29, 1866, Savannah, Georgia) was head of the engineer corps for the Confederate States Army briefly for about a month in 1864. He planned and constructed the defenses for Vicksburg. Smith was one of the few Northern-born generals to fight for the Confederacy as he had served most of his early career in the South with the topographical engineers, marrying a native of Athens, Georgia.

In 1842, he graduated 16th in his West Point class of 56. Early in the Civil War, he served under General David Twiggs at New Orleans. After Vicksburg fell, he was captured and later exchanged in 1864 to become chief engineer for the Army of Northern Virginia and later the Army of Tennessee at the end of the war where he prepared the defenses of Mobile, Alabama. He died soon after the war ended. At the time of his death, he was chief engineer of the railroad system that linked Selma, Alabama with Dalton, Georgia.