Delayed Honor

IT SHOULD BE NO SURPRISE that attrition among color-bearers was staggering during the war, so much that commanders often cited these individuals by name when listing killed and wounded in their after-action reports—a singular honor, particularly for enlisted soldiers. Private Andrew Jackson Smith would be one of those color-bearers for his regiment. It was not, however, a position he had sought; rather, it quite literally fell to him.

Smith was born into slavery in September 1843, on the Lyon County, Ky., plantation of Elias Smith, who, in addition to being the boy’s master, apparently was also his father. When Elias Smith died just prior to the outbreak of the war, Andrew was handed down to Elias’ son, William.

Although the population of Kentucky, one of four prominent border states, was strongly proslavery, its government—and most of the citizens—officially supported the Union.