Joseph Rowe Smith, Jr.: A Legacy of Military Medicine (1831–1911)

Joseph Rowe Smith, Jr., military surgeon, was born on May 18, 1831, in New York, to Joseph Rowe Smith, Sr. (who later was promoted to brevet brigadier general) and Juliet (DeHart) Smith. In 1848 the younger Smith graduated with a bachelor of arts from the University of Michigan, where he was active in the Chi Psi fraternity. The 1850 census listed Smith and his family in Buffalo, New York, where he was a student. He earned a degree in medicine from the University of Buffalo.

Joseph Rowe Smith, Jr., was approved as assistant surgeon of the Regular Army Medical Staff in the United States Medical Department on December 15, 1854. He was transferred to the Department of Texas, where he reported to Fort Chadbourne, and in January 1855 he was assigned to duty with an expedition. Smith was working out of the Depot Camp on the Big Wichita River the following February. On April 24, 1855, he joined the garrison at Ringgold Barracks (see FORT RINGGOLD) by transfer and relieved Acting Assistant Surgeon Richard Kennon, a civilian physician. Smith left the post on June 25, 1855, upon his transfer to Fort McKavett.

He joined Fort McKavett on August 13 and replaced Assistant Surgeon Robert Southgate. In his Inspection Report of 1856, Col. Joseph King Fenno Mansfield reported that the post hospital at Fort McKavett was under the direction of Assistant Surgeon J. R. Smith with the assistance of a good steward. The hospital building, mess room, and kitchen were all constructed of stone with a shingled roof, and appeared “in good order,” which included ample medicine and supplies on hand, and properly kept records. The colonel reported that the garrison was “not sickly here except in scurvy.” Mansfield concluded his report with a listing of condemned hospital equipment that was no longer suitable for service, this included: “4 blankets, 2 sheets, 11 pillow cases, 9 coverlets, 19 towels, 3 tin canisters, 1 coffee mill, 1 sauce pan, 1 coffee pot, 1 mortar & pestle, 1 medicine chest, 1 dissecting case, 1 bathing tub, 14 lbs tea & to be made into one, two packet sets.” Smith served Fort McKavett until he was relieved by Assistant Surgeon Andrew Kingsbury Smith on August 29, 1856. Smith left the post on September 1, after he was transferred to Camp Verde. Enroute to his new duty station, he served at Fort Mason in September 1856, until he was replaced by John McSween, a contracted civilian physician.

In October 1856 Assistant Surgeon Smith joined Camp Verde. A year later he began a four- month leave. He went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during this time, and on December 17, 1857, Joseph R. Smith, Jr., married Claramond Colquhoun Cleemann, daughter of Gustavus Bernard Christian Cleemann and Claramond (Colquhoun) Cleemann, at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Philadelphia. Census information indicates that the couple may have had three children, but all died young before 1900.

Smith was transferred from Camp Verde to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, on March 5, 1858. On January 28, 1859, 1st Lt. Smith replaced Assistant Surgeon George Taylor at Fort Lancaster, Texas, and in October 1859 he was recorded on the post returns as assistant surgeon. He was on leave from October to November 1860 and left the post in March 1861.

During the Civil War, Smith served in the Union Army as an assistant surgeon in 1861. In May 1861 Assistant Surgeon Smith and his fellow medical officers were captured by Confederate (State) troops while working at an army hospital in San Antonio. After a prisoner exchange, Smith returned to the Union Army. On June 11, 1862, he was promoted to surgeon, with the rank of major. In July 1863 he served as Acting Surgeon General, retaining the rank of major. In February 1865, by a general order from President Abraham Lincoln, Smith became Surgeon General and Medical Director of the U.S. Army. He was breveted lieutenant colonel for “superior ability and excellent management of affairs” to his department on March 13, 1865. On November 22, 1866, he was breveted colonel for meritorious service and “devotion to the sick during the prevalence of the cholera” at Little Rock, Arkansas.

In October 1867 Smith rejoined the garrison at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, where he served alongside Assistant Surgeon Howard Culbertson through August 24, 1868. In March 1869 Smith was in Washington, D. C., to settle the accounts of his recently-deceased father, Bvt. Brig. Gen. J. R. Smith, Sr. The younger Smith returned to Jefferson Barracks in July 1869, and the 1870 census recorded him and his family, which included his wife and their young daughter Juliet, living in Carondelet, St. Louis County, Missouri. Smith served at Jefferson Barracks through mid-1871. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel–surgeon on January 9, 1885, and colonel–surgeon on February 9, 1890. Col. Jospeh R. Smith, Jr., retired from the United States Army on April 18, 1895, after serving more than forty years.

On the 1900 census, Smith, his wife, and two Black servants were living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He received an honorary LL.D. from the University of Michigan in 1901 and was awarded the rank of brevet brigadier general in 1904. By the 1910 census his wife had passed away, and Smith had moved in with his brother-in-law, Richard Cleemann, and his wife. At seventy-nine years of age, Bvt. Brig. Gen. Joseph Rowe Smith, Jr., died from pneumonia on February 11, 1911, in Philadelphia. He was buried at Saint James the Less Episcopal Churchyard in the same city. Multiple newspapers announced the death of Brigadier General Smith.