USMA Class of 1835. Cullum No. 832.

Sixteenth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy, At West Point, New York, June 12, 1885, Evening News, East Saginaw, Michigan, 1885, pages 56-58.
Larkin Smith
No. 832. Class Of 1835.
Died, December 3, 1884, at San Antonio, Texas, aged 70.
Larkin Smith was born on the 9th day of April A.D. 1814, at Fredericksburg, Virginia. He was the eldest son of Major Charles Henry Smith, Paymaster United States Army, there being seven sons and six daughters in the family. His boyhood days were spent in the cities of Fredericksburg and Norfolk, Virginia, until his 17th year, when he entered the Military Academy on September 1, 1831. He was graduated on July 1, 1835 and promoted in the army to Brevet Second Lieutenant Third Infantry. From 1835 to 1838 he was stationed at various military posts in Louisiana and at Fort Towson, Indian Territory. From the latter place, he was ordered to the northern frontier during the Canadian disturbances, where he remained until 1840, stationed at Fort Covington and Sackett's Harbor, New York. While at Sackett's Harbor he was promoted to First Lieutenant Eighth Infantry. In 1840 and 1841 he was actively engaged in the Florida war, returning from Florida in the spring of 1841. He was married on the 19th day of May 1841, at Brownville, New York, to Catherine Storrow, youngest daughter of General Jacob Brown, United States Army. Shortly after his marriage he returned to Florida, where he remained until 1845. He was engaged in the most important battles of the Florida War and conducted successfully several important scouting expeditions. In 1845 and 1846 he was stationed in Texas as aide-de-camp to Major General Worth. On the 21st of July, 1846, he was promoted to Captain Eighth Infantry. In the war with Mexico he was engaged in the defense of the convoy at Talome, capture of San Antonio, battle of Contreras and battle of Churubusco. On the 20th of August, 1847, he was breveted Major for gallant and meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and Churubusco. On September 8th, 1847, he was engaged in the battle of Molino del Rey, where he fell severely wounded. The citizens of Norfolk, Virginia, presented him with a handsome silver tea set in token of their appreciation of his conduct and personal bravery during the Mexican war. From 1847 to 1851 he was stationed in Texas. During his stay, there he made many life time friends and became so attached to western Texas that he ever wished to return there and make it his home. He was thoroughly acquainted with the country and all of the frontier posts had known him at one time or another.

For the years from 1851 to 1856 he was Deputy Governor of the Soldiers' Home near Washington, D.C. and from 1856 to 1861 he was again in Texas, until May 13, 1861, when he resigned and joined the south in the war of 1861 to 1866. There were few, if any, who deplored more the necessity of resigning the positions which they had held in the army so long and so honorably than did the subject of this sketch, but his State seceded and although, perhaps, he could see no good to result from it he considered it his duty to follow. He was a man that never faltered from the path of duty. During the war of 1861 to 1866 he held the position of Assistant Quartermaster General of the Confederate States, being stationed at Richmond, Virginia, until the fall of that place. After the war he immediately engaged himself in commercial pursuits and was connected with a cotton factory at Columbus, Georgia and was engaged in the oil commission business until 1870, when he was appointed secretary and treasurer of the Atlanta & Richmond Air Line Railway, with his office in Atlanta, Georgia, a position which he held until 1878, when he resigned and went to Florida, being employed there under the United States Government in the work of improving the harbors on the west coast. He was on this work until 1883, but his health, which had been gradually failing, became so feeble that he had to give it up and he went to San Antonio, Texas, hoping that the life on a ranch which he had purchased among the hills northwest of San Antonio would strengthen him, but, although he took great interest in his new enterprise, it was too late; tired nature could hold out no longer and on the 3d day of December, at his son's residence, in San Antonio, after being confined to his bed a little over two months, he peacefully breathed his last, surrounded by his family. For about twenty-five years previous to his death his health was such that he was scarcely ever free from pain, but he was endowed with great energy and not a year passed, from his boyhood till his death, but found him engaged in some occupation, alike useful to his country and reflecting credit on himself. He needs no formal panegyric; his career speaks for itself.

Larkin Smith was buried, in accordance with his request, in the National Cemetery at San Antonio, Texas, with Generals Stanley, Vincent and Smith, of the army and distinguished gentlemen from the city as pall bearers. So, that, after having passed his boyhood days in close association with the army and the days of manhood till middle life, as a distinguished officer through two wars under the old flag, he is again, at his own request, placed under the flag of his country to await the sound of the Grand Reveille.