Smith isn't very well known today in spite of his coming from an illustrious family heritage and having made a name for himself during his own lifetime. He was seldom called by his first name, Sydney, preferring instead to be called simply Smith. Smith is a common name anyway. Maybe that's why he isn't very well known.
Smith was born on September 2, 1802. He grew up to graduate from the U.S. Naval Academy when he was 18 and became a distinguished naval officer. Among his notable military activities was commanding the paddle frigate USS Mississippi, which was the flagship of Commodore Matthew Perry when that naval officer sailed to Japan with a fleet of warships to pry open the markets of that country in 1853.
And when the Japanese opened their first embassy in the United States a few years later, Smith was among the naval officers who escorted the delegation from San Francisco to Washington, D.C., and guided them during the ceremonies surrounding the opening of the embassy. He was also present at the White House when President James Buchanan and his cabinet officially welcomed the Japanese delegation.
When the Southern states began to secede, Smith was torn between his loyalty to the United States and his loyalty to Virginia, the state of his nativity. He was not a supporter of secession and thought that South Carolina was wrong in starting the landslide toward disunion. But he could not bear the thought of raising his sword against his state. Therefore, he resigned his commission in the U.S. Navy and accepted one in the Confederate Navy.
Although Smith had little faith in iron ships, he was assigned the responsibility of converting the burned-out ruins of the USS Merrimack into the ironclad that would be renamed the CSS Virginia. Shortly thereafter, he was charged with fortifying and strengthening the defenses at Drewry's Bluff on the James River several miles south of Richmond, the Confederate capital.
He did a good job at both tasks. His efforts at Drewry's Bluff enabled the fort to withstand a five-hour bombardment by Union gunboats on May 15, 1862. The area became the training ground of the Confederate Naval Academy.
After the war, Smith left naval activities to pursue farming--in Argentina. He wasn't a very good farmer, however, and had to deal with numerous problems for which he was ill equipped. Neither was he much of a writer, for he left few letters to give us a more complete record of his life.
Although we don't have a lot of information about Smith's life, we do have a lot of information about his younger brother, who made quite a name for himself. His brother's name was Robert Edward--Robert E. Lee.
Yes, Sydney Smith's last name was Lee, too. He and Robert were sons of Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee of Revolutionary War fame and a governor of Virginia. The distinguishing difference between the two brothers seems to have been energy and aggressiveness. Robert had both; Smith had neither.
Sydney Smith Lee and Robert E. Lee. Two brothers, two starkly different lives.
And as radio commentator Paul Harvey so often said, "Now you know--the rest of the story."
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