Andrew Jackson Smith

Andrew Jackson Smith (September 3, 1843 – March 4, 1932) served as a soldier in the Union Army during the American Civil War and received America's highest military decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his action in the Battle of Honey Hill.

Biography According to family history, Smith was born into slavery, the son of Susan, a slave, and Elijah Smith, a slave owner. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Elijah Smith joined the Confederate military, with the intention of taking 19-year-old Andrew along with him. When Andrew Smith learned of this, he and another slave ran away, walking through the rain before presenting themselves to a Union Army regiment, the 41st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, in Smithland, Kentucky.