James Stevenson Smart (June 14, 1842 – September 17, 1903) was a

U.S. Representative 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 c ...

from

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Early life

Born in

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on June 14, 1842, Smart moved with his parents to Coila, part of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, Washington County, New York, in 1849. He attended Cambridge Academy and

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, and graduated from Jefferson College (now

Washington & Jefferson College Washington & Jefferson College (W&J College or W&J) is a private liberal arts college in Washington, Pennsylvania. The college traces its origin to three log cabin colleges in Washington County established by three Presbyterian missionaries to ...

) in

Canonsburg, Pennsylvania Canonsburg is a Borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Washington County, Pennsylvania, southwest of Pittsburgh. Canonsburg was laid out by Colonel John Canon in 1789 and incorporated in 1802. The population was 9,735 at the 2020 census. The town li ...

in 1863. While in college, Smart became a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

Civil War

Smart entered the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

in January 1864 as

First Lieutenant First lieutenant is a commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces; in some forces, it is an appointment. The rank of lieutenant has different meanings in different military formations, but in most forces it is sub-divided into a s ...

in the 16th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment. He was promoted to

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

and commander of the regiment's Company K. The regiment took part in action in

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 ...

and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, including the Second Battle of Fort Fisher and he served until after the war, receiving his discharge in August 1865.

Post Civil War

Smart was a newspaper writer and editor, and became publisher of the Washington County Post. He was elected as a Republican to the Forty-third Congress (March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1874. For many years Smart was a member of the New York Republican State Committee's central committee, and he was a Delegate to several Republican National Conventions. In 1883 he was appointed federal Collector of Internal Revenue for New York's northern district, and he served until 1885, when he was succeeded by Samuel Tilden, Jr., the nephew of

Samuel J. Tilden Samuel Jones Tilden (February 9, 1814 – August 4, 1886) was an American politician who served as the 25th Governor of New York and was the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed 1876 United States presidential election. Tilden was ...

Death and burial

He died in Cambridge on September 17, 1903. He was interred in Cambridge's Woodland Cemetery, Section G, Lot 50.New York Veterans Burial Cards, entry for James S. Smart, retrieved December 25, 2013

References

External links

*
James Stevenson Smart
a
''The Political Graveyard''
retrieved December 25, 2013 {{DEFAULTSORT:Smart, James Stevenson 1842 births 1903 deaths People from Cambridge, New York 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) Washington & Jefferson College alumni Union Army officers Burials in New York (state) Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from New York (state) 19th-century American politicians