Ballard Smith was a soldier and congressman from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Biography

Smith was born in

Hanover County, Virginia Hanover County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 109,979. Its county seat is Hanover Courthouse. Hanover County is a part of the Greater Richmond Region. History Located in the wester ...

. In the Revolutionary War, he rose to the now-defunct rank of

captain lieutenant Captain lieutenant or captain-lieutenant is a military rank, used in a number of navies worldwide and formerly in the British Army. Northern Europe Denmark, Norway and Finland The same rank is used in the navies of Denmark (), Norway () and Finl ...

in the

1st Virginia Regiment The 1st Virginia Regiment was an infantry regiment of the Virginia Line that served with the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. History Origins The regiment originated from the Charles City-Henrico County Regiment of ...

of the Continental Army. In the 1790s, he rose to the rank of major in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

. He was a member of the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-number ...

from 1810 to 1813 and was later elected a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

in 1814, serving from 1815 to 1821. Afterwards, Smith returned to the House of Delegates in 1824, serving again until 1826 and again in 1836 and 1837.

Electoral history

*1815; Smith was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating Federalist John Mathews. *1817; Smith was re-elected unopposed. *1819; Smith was re-elected unopposed.

References

Retrieved on 2009-05-07
Service record
from Francis B. Heitman's ''Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army''. Heitman says that the Lieutenant Ballard Smith who served in the Revolution died on 20 March 1794, i.e. before the subject of this article served in Congress. Heitman is in error or these are two different men. Continental Army officers from Virginia Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia People from Hanover County, Virginia 19th-century American politicians People from Greenbrier County, West Virginia {{Virginia-Representative-stub