Thomas C. H. Smith

Thomas Church Haskell Smith, or Thomas C.H. Smith, (1819–1897) was a lawyer, businessman, soldier and officer of the U.S. Treasury Department. He served as a Brigadier General in the Union Army during the American Civil War and was an advisor to Governor, later President, Rutherford B. Hayes. Smith then accepted a position as a Major and paymaster in the U. S. Army, after which he moved to California, where he died.

Early and family life Born in Acushnet, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1819, Thomas Church Haskell Smith graduated from Harvard in 1841, went to Marietta, Ohio, and took up the study of law. He completed his law studies and practiced in Cincinnati until 1848. On October 11, 1847, he married Lucy Woodbridge of Marietta. In 1848 he became involved in a business venture that completed a telegraph line from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, and another line from Sandusky, Ohio, to New Orleans. In 1851 he again returned to the practice of law, this time in Cincinnati. In 1852 he became a member of the Literary Club of Cincinnati, whose members included Rutherford B. Hayes and John Pope. At a special meeting of the club on April 17, 1861, two days after President Lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers, Smith trained with an unofficial military company organized that day from members of the club. participating in the 2nd Battle of Manassas. General Smith remained active in business, veterans' affairs and Republican politics, although he lost much of his wealth in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. After his friend, Rutherford B. Hayes, was elected president, Smith became one of Hayes' unofficial advisors. He was named Chief of the Appointment Division of the Treasury department, where he oversaw all matters pertaining to the department's personnel, including dealing with candidates for Treasury offices. After his service in the Treasury Department, he was appointed Paymaster in the regular army with the rank of Major on April 17, 1878. He served for a year in Washington, during which time he testified at West Point before the special commission investigating the case of General Fitz John Porter. where he served until September 1882. Major Smith retired from the army on March 24, 1883, at the age of sixty-four, and settled in California.

Death and legacy General Thomas Smith died at Nordhoff (now Ojai), California, on April 8, 1897, and was buried in Santa Barbara, California.