Confederate General William "Extra Billy" Smith: From Virginia's Statehouse to Gettysburg Scapegoat

By Scott L. Mingus

An award-winning biography of one of the Confederacy’s most colorful and controversial generals.
 
Winner of the 2013 Nathan Bedford Forrest History Book Award for Southern History
Nominated for the 2014 Virginia Book Award for Nonfiction
 
Despite a life full of drama, politics, and adventure, little has been written about William “Extra Billy” Smith—aside from a rather biased account by his brother-in-law back in the nineteenth century. As the oldest and one of the most controversial Confederate generals on the field at Gettysburg, Smith was also one of the most charismatic characters of the Civil War and the antebellum Old South.
 
Known nationally as “Extra Billy” because of his prewar penchant for finding loopholes in government postal contracts to gain extra money for his stagecoach lines, Smith served as Virginia’s governor during both the war with Mexico and the Civil War; served five terms in the US Congress; and was one of Virginia’s leading spokesmen for slavery and states’ rights. Extra Billy’s extra-long speeches and wry sense of humor were legendary among his peers. A lawyer during the heady Gold Rush days, he made a fortune in California—and, as with his income earned from stagecoaches, quickly lost it.
 
Despite his advanced age, Smith took to the field and fought well at First Manassas, was wounded at Seven Pines and again at Sharpsburg, and marched with Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia into Pennsylvania. There, on the first day at Gettysburg, Smith’s frantic messages about a possible Union flanking attack remain a matter of controversy to this day. Did his aging eyes see distant fence-lines that he interpreted as approaching enemy soldiers—mere phantoms of his imagination? Or did his prompt action stave off a looming Confederate disaster?
 
This biography draws upon a wide array of newspapers, diaries, letters, and other firsthand accounts to paint a portrait of one of the South’s most interesting leaders, complete with original maps and photos.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9781611211306

Scott L. Mingus

Scott L. Mingus Sr., a scientist in the paper industry, is the award-winning author of more than a dozen Civil War books, including his forthcoming (with Joe Owens) Unceasing Fury: Texans at the Battle of Chickamauga, September 18–20, 1863 (2022) and his two-volume study (with Eric J. Wittenberg) “If We Are Striking for Pennsylvania:” The Army of Northern Virginia and the Army of the Potomac March to Gettysburg, June 3–22, 1863 (2022). Scott maintains a blog on the Civil War history of York County (www.yorkblog.com/cannonball) and resides in York, Pennsylvania.

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Introduction

The Civil War (1861-1865) capped a traumatic period in American history that saw the country torn apart in a bitter internal conflict that resulted in the deaths of more than 640,000 soldiers (almost two percent of the entire U.S. population). The war resulted from several decades of diverse opinions on how best to deal with the intertwined issues of slavery and states' rights or popular sovereignty, the belief that individual states retained all rights that the Constitution did not exclusively grant to the centralized Federal government. Congress wrangled throughout the early 19th century with these questions. Westward expansion exacerbated the issues before the election of a former Illinois rail-splitter named Abraham Lincoln gave the anti-slavery Republican Party its first presidential victory. Concerned their way of life would disappear, Southern firebrands created a wave of pro-secession sentiment that carried the bitterly divided nation into war.

The tumultuous era produced some of the most colorful and passionate personalities in U.S. history, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Stephen Douglas, Jefferson Davis, and Abraham Lincoln. Largely forgotten today is an energetic congressman and Southern governor who in his day rivaled the giants in terms of public exposure and media coverage—William Smith of Virginia. Familiarly known as Extra Billy for his penchant for collecting extra revenues on government mail contracts, Smith rose to major general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. His fiery political rhetoric and impulsive lifestyle foreshadowed his emotional, uneven performance as a military officer. Lacking formal training, he applied his craft through trial and error but never mastered the art of tactical warfare. While personally valorous and brave, his abject lack of military acumen played a significant role in shaping the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, a part largely unknown to modern battlefield visitors. Here then is his story, hopefully unbiased by sectionalism or regional prejudices, and written more from a narrative style than an interpretive one.

In retelling the extraordinary tale of Extra Billy, I wish to thank so many people for their assistance. Two William Smith living historians gladly extended their assistance and expertise. G. Edward LeFevre graciously took the time to show me Virginia sites that Smith frequented—Marengo, Culpeper, Warrenton, Fairfax, and others. David Meisky freely shared his notes and thoughts and suggested several useful changes to the working manuscript. I also thank Robert Krick Sr., Dr. Daniel J. Beattie, and Craig Swain, three Virginia historians who provided valuable leads on source materials, as did so many other friends from the Old Dominion. I am also grateful to the staffs of several Virginia historical societies, libraries, and museums for their gracious cooperation, including Frances Allshouse of the Old Jail Museum in Warrenton and Heather Beattie at the Virginia Historical Society. The Library of Virginia holds many of Smith's official papers from his two terms as governor.

Dr. Richard J. Sommers and the fine staff at Carlisle's U.S. Military History Institute freely gave valuable help. Proofreaders and consultants included Doug Kline, Ted Alexander, James Moss Sr., Lee Sherrill Jr., and J. David Petruzzi, as well as First Manassas/Bull Run expert Harry Smeltzer and Seven Pines author Dr. Steven H. Newton. Robert J. Driver, Jr., author of an excellent book on the 52nd Virginia Infantry, offered his assistance and advice. Cartographer and Civil War writer Hal Jespersen drew the excellent maps for this book and provided several useful suggestions. Ivor Janci of Marek/Janci Design colorized the illustration from J. W. Bell's 1891 biography of Smith for the front cover.

I also want to express my gratitude to Ted Savas and his excellent staff at Savas Beatie LLC for their wonderful cooperation and support for this project. In particular I thank Veronica Kane, Sarah Keeney, and Lee Merideth for all of their unwavering patience and useful suggestions.

I especially thank my family for putting up with me writing yet another Civil War book. They have patiently listened to my chatter about long ago events, places, and people; and some have endured long car rides to check out source material and walk Extra Billy Smith's old battlefields. My beloved wife Debi has been my source of love, inspiration, courage, and persistence in getting this lengthy project finished. Her unwavering love and support will forever stir my heart, and I thank her for everything she means to me.

William Smith's brother-in-law, Judge John W. Bell, once remarked, The ex-Governor has been most methodical in preserving the records of his official life. They afford material for a valuable and interesting historical work, and his friends entertain the hope that he may at an early day be induced to give to the public from his own pen a volume or more of his reminiscences. Former Confederate Maj. John W. Daniel later informed Extra Billy's son, Thomas Smith, It was very gratifying for me to learn that there is in course of preparation a memorial volume of your father's life, and I wish indeed that a fall biography of him could be written … Could his memoirs be fully written they would furnish a graphic and instructive page of history, and supply to the rising generation the mould of a patriot and hero, ‘the like of which we shall not see again.’ Would that his biography could be written, and placed in the hands of every young man in the land!

William Smith wrote, How I bore myself is a matter of history, to which I fearlessly refer the curious. It is my intention that this modest volume has adequately fulfilled Bell's and Daniel's earnest requests by helping today's curious Civil War and political history buffs to better know the complex Virginian everyone knew as Extra Billy.

Scott L. Mingus Sr.

York, Pennsylvania

To tell, as it deserves, each noble deed,

Of volumes without number there'd be need.

A few alone we've space and time to tell;

Help me, my Muse, to give the story well.

Virginia's William Smith, old brigadier

As colonel in his four and sixtieth year

At First Manassas in the front was found,

At Seven Pines received a painful wound,

Three more on Sharpsburg's well-contested field

And yet to toils and dangers did not yield;

But after Gettysburg promotion gained

And highest honors from his State obtained.

Joseph Tyrone Derry

Excerpted from The Strife of Brothers: A Poem

Atlanta, GA: The Franklin Printing and Publishing Co., 1904

Chapter 1

I never objected to the name.

Extra Billy: The Early Years, 1797-1842

A farmer's tree-lined fencing? Or, enemy soldiers readying for an imminent attack? In the shimmering summer sunshine they were hard to distinguish as 65-year-old Confederate Brig. Gen. William Smith peered off in the distance. The long dark line along the road east of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, certainly looked menacing on this humid afternoon of July 1, 1863. White-haired, clean-shaven, and with ramrod straight posture, Smith was the oldest general in Robert E. Lee's vaunted Army of Northern Virginia. He believed the sight confirmed his scouts’ persistent reports of masses of Union infantry advancing on the York Road. If true, the Federal movement threatened the Rebels' left flank and could possibly change a certain tactical victory into an abject disaster. He stared again. Yes, they must be Yankees, he decided.

Smith's path to Gettysburg was a long and decidedly mixed journey. The old Virginian boasted a colorful and star-crossed pedigree. The nation knew him as Extra Billy for his penchant of using a loophole in government postal contracts to receive extra compensation as a stagecoach line operator in the 1830s. Governor of Virginia during the Mexican War, later a California 49er, and a pro-slavery, five-term U.S. congressman, Smith gained and spent two fortunes, and his 300-acre plantation ranked among the finest in Fauquier County. Seven of his eleven children lay in graves, the most recent mortally wounded thirteen months previously during the battle of Gaines's Mill. Another son almost died from a severe wound in an engagement at Cloyd's Mountain and was now a colonel down in Tennessee. Still another lost an arm in his youth, and one more drowned in a shipwreck near Hawaii.

For more than two years William Smith had officered in the Southern army; he bore the marks from painful injuries in three past battles. His left shoulder incessantly throbbed from a severe wound inflicted at Sharpsburg the previous September and he barely could lift his sword. Few observers challenged his personal bravery or dedication to the Old Dominion. Likewise, few admired his generalship, which proved inconsistent at best. Some laughed at his strange quirk of carrying an old blue umbrella and wearing a beaver top hat into early engagements. An immensely popular campaigner and mesmerizing public speaker, Smith enjoyed widespread support among Virginia's voters, who recently re-elected him to the governorship. This was his last campaign before assuming office in January. His constituents loved him; his soldiers tolerated him. He commanded the second smallest Confederate brigade at Gettysburg; two veteran regiments remained in Virginia after the Second Battle of Winchester in mid-June to guard prisoners and captured supplies.

Now Smith faced a command decision on how best to counter the perceived threat to the east on the York Road. The general ordered his son, Lt. Frederick W. Smith, to gallop into Gettysburg to repeat his warning to his division commander, crusty Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early, one of those West P'inters that he collectively despised. Unknown to Governor-elect Smith, his importunate reports and debatable handling of his veteran brigade may have affected the outcome of the first day's fighting at the battle of Gettysburg and influenced Confederate fortunes the next two days.

To some in the Southern army, including the irascible Early, the terse messages brought annoyance and disbelief. One thing was clear enough— the teetotaler Smith detested any form of intoxicant, so his impassioned reports either stemmed from pain-wracked confusion or hysteria; an honest error in observation and military judgment; or a very real threat that another set of eyes quickly needed to assess. Early sent another general that he fully trusted, John B. Gordon, and his brigade of Georgia infantry to take charge of the situation and bring stability to the flank. Their redeployment to assist Smith denied Early their use in any late afternoon attempt to storm the reinforced Union line on Cemetery Hill south of Gettysburg.

View of the Potomac River inlet from modern-day Marengo Farm.

Author's photograph

To his many detractors, Smith's frantic notes proved to be inconsistent with later known movements of Union troops and, in reality, stemmed from his uncertainty and lack of formal military training in reconnaissance. Some believed the controversial old man clearly was out of his league at Gettysburg and badly misinterpreted a key tactical situation. That error in turn led to a command decision that negatively affected the outcome of the battle and perhaps even the very future of the Confederacy he so loved. To his supporters, Smith's timely notes finally spurred his skeptical superiors into action. They brought attention to Union cavalry and Twelfth Corps infantry that if left unchecked might have been brought to bear on the Rebels' exposed flank. His persistence saved Lee's army from an unmitigated fiasco, some thought.

The truth may lie somewhere in between.

A Proud Heritage

William Smith was born on September 6, 1797, on a plantation owned by his father Col. Caleb Smith in rural King George County, Virginia. Most accounts locate the site as the Marengo farm along the Potomac River, although some evidence suggests a different estate (later known as Office Hall) a few miles inland to the southeast.¹

The Smiths traced their ancestry to a 16th-century forbearer named Doniphan, a Spanish knight who commanded royal troops in several wars against the Moors. After failing to obey King Philip II's orders to destroy several captured Moorish towns and their inhabitants, he fell into disfavor and fled to Scotland. During the English Civil Wars of the 1640s his descendant Alexander Doniphan remained fiercely loyal to King Charles I, who the Parliamentarians executed in 1649. After the restoration of the monarchy eleven years later, Charles II granted him vast land tracts. However, the Protestant Doniphan soon immigrated to Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia to seek religious freedom. Some time before 1662, he married an heiress, Margaret, a daughter of wealthy Scotsman George Mott, and came into possession of 18,000 acres in the Northern Neck region of coastal Virginia.²

Alexander's namesake son later married Mary Waugh, a union through which both of Extra Billy Smith's parents later traced their roots. In 1773 their daughter Elizabeth married Capt. William Smith, a son of Joseph and Kitty Smith and owner of the Mount Eccentric estate in rural Fauquier County. William's brother, Thomas, a militia officer in the American Revolution, and his wife Elizabeth Keith sired Caleb, who gained success as an attorney. Caleb wielded an extraordinary influence over the people of his county and served several terms in the Virginia legislature. In December 1794 he married his 19-year-old cousin Mary Waugh Smith, William and Elizabeth Doniphan Smith's daughter. Caleb and Mary's first child, Eliza, was born in September 1795, but she died in August 1797. Three weeks later Mary delivered a son she named after her younger brother, William Rowley Smith.³

Remains of outbuildings on the old Office Hall Plantation.

Author's photograph

As a boy, William Smith received early educational instruction on his father's plantation. For several years, he often walked six miles to attend classes at a field school. At an early age he was distinguished for zeal and mental vigor in the prosecution of his studies. He enjoyed the privileged lifestyle of Virginia's high society, an agrarian way of life heavily dependent upon the produce of the land. Wealthier plantation owners such as Col. Caleb Smith relied extensively on slave labor or hired hands to harvest their crops and tend the livestock and fowls. However, most Virginians owned no slaves and instead farmed their own plots. Trade and barter abounded, but rarely extended beyond the immediate region. Religion flourished, and often multiple church spires overlooked the many small towns. Little had changed in the decade since the Revolution, with only a few significant cities scattered along the Mid-Atlantic seaboard and a scarcity of heavy industry. Formal education proved virtually impossible for most Southerners, unless one enjoyed the financial means to send his children away for private schooling. The colonel was in exactly that enviable position.⁴

In 1807, Smith dispatched the 10-year-old, freckle-faced William to live for a short time with an intimate friend in Fredericksburg, Judge John Williams Green and his wife Mary. He sought Green's opinion as to the mental capacity of his eldest son and his ability to receive and retain a classical, but expensive, education. Young William received a very favorable report. Following the death of his mother in mid-September 1811, William left home at the age of thirteen for Plainfield, Connecticut, to study English and the classics at noted educator Jabez Huntington's private school. There, Smith flourished under the master teacher's firm hand and his academic future seemed bright. However, his time at the prestigious Plainfield Academy proved short-lived, as unexpected changes soon led him to a different path.⁵

On June 18, 1812, during Smith's second year at Plainfield, Congress declared war on Britain. An intense spirit of patriotism soon swept across the young country. The Revolutionary War had ended less than two decades before, and many Americans still itched for another fight with Britain. For several years the British engaged in a multi-national conflict with Emperor Napoleon's French armies, and Parliament feared U.S. intervention on the French side. Escalating trade tension and impressments of American seamen acerbated the deteriorating relationship.

William, caught up in the nationalistic fervor, earnestly besought his influential father's assistance in obtaining a midshipman's warrant to go fight against the Royal Navy. Emotions ran high, particularly in New England, so Caleb Smith recalled his son from Plainfield in December and sent him home in an attempt to cool his ardor. Not wanting William to join the navy and deeming him too young for the army, Colonel Smith determined to give his son the best education the country could then afford. He enrolled him in Wingfield, Thomas Nelson's celebrated English and Classical School in Hanover County, Virginia. Nelson enjoyed a reputation as a highly successful teacher whose pupils often distinguished themselves later in the fields of science and law. William Smith completed his education at a private school at his father's mansion.

After his father died in November 1814, the 17-year-old Smith returned to Judge John Green's house in Fredericksburg to study law in the firm of Green & Williams. He subsequently continued his training under Thomas L. Moore, a lawyer with a large practice in Warrenton. Smith, despite his youth, had practical charge of all of the office work. He later completed his studies in the prestigious Baltimore, Maryland, law office of former general William H. Winder.⁶

In the summer of 1818, Judge Green, Judge Hugh Holmes, and prominent attorney Robert White administered the bar examination to the 20-year-old Smith. In August he established his practice in Culpeper County in the undulating Piedmont region of Northern Virginia. Within weeks, illness forced Smith to rest until late October, when he began spending the fourth Monday of each month in the Fauquier County courthouse northeast of Culpeper. Endowed with a robust frame and vigorous constitution, Smith's energy and passion soon attracted a sizable clientele in both counties. He later wrote, Being a man of strong convictions and fearless in maintaining them, I soon took part in politics. It provided a natural fit for a young, aggressive lawyer seeking name recognition. He joined the Democratic Party and pledged to a strict construction of party doctrines, frugality in public expenditures, and honesty in the public servant. It was his political trinity, from which he never swerved to the hour of his death.⁷

William Extra Billy Smith, attorney and businessman.

Fauquier Historical Society

Smith endorsed limiting the power of national government and expanding the rights of individual states: I could not see how our systems of State and Federal Governments could be fairly misconstrued. The line of separation between them was plain, manifest, intended, provided for. He strictly and narrowly interpreted the Constitution, and believed the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.⁸

The aspiring attorney became legal guardian to younger siblings Catherine and James Madison Smith. He courted teenaged Miss Elizabeth Hansbrough Bell, one of the area's most desirable and socially gifted young women. She was the eldest daughter of the late James M. and Amelia Bell of the nearby Bell Parke plantation. Captain Bell, a wealthy and prominent Culpeper citizen, and his wife long were renowned for their Virginia hospitality. Smith's subsequent marriage to Elizabeth in 1821 united two of the region's oldest families. A year later on November 5 she gave birth to a son they named William Henry, and in 1824 a second son, James Caleb, was born. The families further conjoined when Elizabeth's brother, William Bell, married Smith's younger sister Martha.⁹

At the time, Culpeper was closely divided in politics, with the speaking talent, as a rule, in the ranks of the opposition party (the Federalists). Smith's unusual oratory skills and his youthful exuberance gained the attention of local Democratic leaders. They used him as a stump-speaker in a dozen local campaigns. In the hotly contested four-way presidential election of 1824, Smith supported Georgian William H. Crawford, the incumbent Secretary of the Treasury. He slightly preferred Crawford to military hero and Senator Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. Smith strongly opposed the other two candidates, Speaker of the House Henry Clay of Kentucky and U.S. Secretary of State John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts. Although Crawford easily carried Virginia, Jackson enjoyed a national plurality in the popular and electoral votes but failed to reach the required 131 minimum electoral tally. To Smith's dismay, Adams surprisingly won a contingent run-off election in the House of Representatives when he gained Clay's support in what some decried as a corrupt bargain. Adams subsequently named the Virginia-born Clay as Secretary of State, a powerful position that usually led to the White House in the next election.¹⁰

Elizabeth Hansbrough Smith

Fauquier Historical Society

Smith's political exposure and wider recognition helped him expand his legal practice, which soon generated significant income. In 1825 he erected a large Greek Revival mansion with imposing 20-foot white columns. His sprawling property encompassed a full square block at N. Main and W. Spencer streets in downtown Culpeper. His huge brick stable and its large paddocks ranked among the finest such facilities in the county.¹¹

Extra Billy

Culpeper was nestled in the Piedmont highlands, far from Virginia's bustling social and political centers. The region, blessed with good soil and a temperate climate, facilitated agriculture and light industry. Many of Smith's clients realized the need for speedier communication and convenient routes to transport their goods to larger markets such as Richmond and Norfolk, where Tidewater-area slave owners controlled much of the commerce because of close access and availability. The farmers of the Northern Neck, few of whom owned slaves, wanted the ability to compete for the city dwellers' lucrative business. Smith seized an opportunity to improve his own fortunes while accommodating the citizens. At the time, before the growth of railroads, stagecoaches provided the main public land transportation. All coach lines in the region ran east and west from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the coast. He envisioned intersecting them with a new service traveling north and south.¹²

In 1827, the year his daughter Mary Amelia was born, the 29-year-old Smith contracted with the Federal government to establish the Accommodation Mail Line, a series of periodic postal and passenger stagecoaches from Washington, D.C., to Culpeper. Within a year, while he stumped the region for Andrew Jackson's presidential campaign, Smith extended the line to Charlottesville. He then expanded to Lynchburg, with twice-a-week stops in Fairfax, Warrenton, Culpeper, Orange Court House, and Amherst Court House. The distance the coaches traveled to deliver the mail determined his remuneration. Smith frequently drove a stagecoach and at times he would stop and allow admiring local boys to ride in the boot for short distances. One of the lads was his future brother-in-law, John W. Bell.¹³

Smith's life flourished. In 1829 he and Elizabeth celebrated the birth of their fourth child, Austin E., and his profitable business opened the region to commercial trade with larger towns and connected residents with the national mail service. In 1830, the Post Office Department renewed Smith's contract from Washington City to Lynchburg (three times a week, 200 miles, four-horse post coaches) for $6,000 a year. Smith was not the low bidder, but he won the route nonetheless. The department noted in its annual report to the U.S. Senate, W. Hart bid $4,977 per annum. Hart was not recommended; Smith was the former contractor, very highly approved, and had very recently, by his own enterprise, established a first rate line of four-horse post coaches on the whole route; the preference was, therefore, given to him. Smith also won a $1,600 contract to run two-horse stages twice a week from Lynchburg to Danville because he could make the 81-mile route in less time than his regional competitor, John S. Foster.¹⁴

Pleased with the financial results, Smith, backed by President Jackson, won a contract in 1831 to increase service throughout Virginia, despite a competitor's lower bid. It was a significant thank you for his ardent support of Old Hickory in the 1828 presidential campaign that had unseated John Quincy Adams. Smith expanded into places such as Fredericksburg, where he developed a working relationship with the spacious Farmers Hotel. One local writer noted, Because of his unsurpassed politeness, he became popular with travelers. Another Virginian described Smith as a stocky, freckle-faced lad whose genial, open-hearted manner made friends with everybody. As his favorable reputation spread, his ridership increased and he captured business from his competitors. Culpeper tax lists that same year indicated that Smith now owned 147 horses for his growing business.¹⁵

The young entrepreneur soon received government approval to expand the rechristened Piedmont Mail Route south through the Carolinas and finally down to Milledgeville, capital of Georgia, a trip of more than 650 miles. His livery of four-horse coaches undertook the three-day ride between Washington and Lynchburg with daily mail deliveries, and three trips a week on the six-day journey between Lynchburg and Milledgeville. Smith's line soon became a lifeline of the region's proliferating economy. He charged $45 one-way for the entire trip and soon accumulated what Smith later deemed a snug fortune. Smith and other businessmen established relay houses, hotels, stores, blacksmith shops, stables, and other accommodations for the traveling public. His shrewd investments generated wealth and made him influential in Northern Virginia's high society. In mid-April 1833 he purchased a 200-acre tract on Warrenton's southwest outskirts that had belonged to an uncle of future Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee. Smith later constructed a large stable there to quarter his horses for the stage line.¹⁶

Smith's stage line substantially improved the commercial and transportation infrastructure of all four states, and a reporter dubbed him the Pioneer of the South. He soon acquired a new, less complimentary nickname, Extra Billy. Several congressmen attacked the financial policies of Postmaster General William T. Barry, who owed his Cabinet post to two-term President Jackson's patronage. The controversial Kentuckian had developed several new postal facilities throughout the South which increased the Post Office Department's expenditures beyond its mandated budget. Congress took Barry to task because of the unexpected (and, in the opinion of many, unnecessary) overages and began policing his cash outlay.

The Blue Book, the official government register, allowed Congress to monitor these expenses. Clerks recorded the salaries and other compensation of postal officers and private contractors. For the latter, an asterisk placed beside the line item denoted any non-budgeted contractor expenditure. Every extra allowance beyond the stipulations of the original contract required an asterisk. Because of Smith's expansion of his postal routes to outlying destinations not specifically stated in his contract, his name boasted an abundance of asterisks. Some accounts suggest he exploited the system by charging an extra fee for any packages carried on passengers' laps (the common practice was to charge only for items stored outside of the passenger compartment). If business was good he often called an extra coach into service.¹⁷

In those days Virginia's Senate selected the two U.S. senators to represent the state. In February 1834 fervent anti-Jackson Whig Benjamin W. Leigh replaced pro-Jackson Democrat William Cabell Rives, an outspoken protégé of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison who guided Smith through the contracting process. Leigh and the Senate extensively investigated postal operations and scrutinized Postmaster General Barry's budget. In questioning several Federal contracts, Leigh sarcastically refused to use the polite title of Mr. Smith for his fellow Virginian. Accusing Smith of unfairly claiming extra cash for himself in excess of the basic routes and budget; he derisively fixed upon him the sobriquet Extra Billy, which adhered to Smith throughout his life. It became a mantra to both his detractors and supporters, and his friends used it as a term of endearment and pride. Smith never objected to the nickname.¹⁸

Washington newsman Benjamin Perley Poore noted that Smith's stages supplanted the previous mounted mail courier system and many of his mail-routes were but little more than bridle-paths, over which the mails were carried on horseback … Smith managed to secure a large number of ‘expeditions’ through Parson Obadiah Bruin [‘Beeswax’] Brown, Superintendent of the contract office of the Post-office Department. Among the specific citations where Smith made a little extra were for prosecuting mail robber, and examining mail route with a view of discovering an alleged mail robbery. He frequently also claimed miscellaneous expenses as a special agent of the Department, as well as special monetary dispensation for using four-horse teams instead of the standard pair to help speed delivery. Smith made nearly $10,000 annually from these side benefits.¹⁹

Postmaster Barry vigorously defended the practice in an address to the people of the United States on July 12, 1834. He noted,

They complain of the extra services performed, and of the extra allowances made to William Smith, of Virginia. When making this complaint, they knew that the extra services were called for by more than a thousand petitioners, sustained by the representatives in Congress of the sections of country through which the line runs, and that the extra pay is less in proportion to the service than that of the original contract.

Page 1 of a broadside advertising the Piedmont Mail Route.

Library of Congress

Congress mandated several changes in the routes which would reduce Smith's extra allowances. Extra Billy protested, It is needless to say, for that is clear, that I protested against all change whatever; that I complained bitterly of the injustice that was done me.²⁰

A series of personal tragedies dampened William and Elizabeth Smith's joy at their financial success and powerful political friendships. Three children—Ellen, Catherine, and John—died in infancy, leaving the couple distraught with grief. Perhaps as a coping mechanism, Extra Billy focused on further expanding his business. It proved to be an unwise decision.²¹

On January 1, 1835, with Postmaster Barry's support Smith won the bid for a government contract to carry mail by coach and steamboat between Richmond and Washington. The previous contractors, the Virginia firm of Edmonds, Davenport & Co., envied Smith's initial success. Upset at losing the business, they started a competitive passenger line between the cities. Smith and his adversaries battled to attract customers, and prices spiraled downward until both groups offered free passage, although they still charged for cargo. Later they offered free bottles of wine as an additional enticement. Before the government intervened, Smith's health failed. In February, while in Fredericksburg on business Smith suffered a violent attack of inflammatory rheumatism. It confined him to his bed for several weeks.

The news soon worsened. In early March, employees brought word that three of his coaches had overturned while crossing swollen Potomac Run. Smith reacted with intense emotion from his sick bed, wanting to take personal control of the situation. Highly agitated, he demanded to be lifted from the bed and then dressed appropriately and placed upon his horse. Smith's aides, with considerable difficulty, readied him for the trek. Despite his illness, he galloped to the run. He impulsively plunged into the icy waters and ordered his drivers to assist him in uprighting the coaches. They soon resumed their route. Smith later wrote that the excitement had freed him from the rheumatism, which, he felt dispelled, not to return again.²²

The ambitious Smith also operated a line of commercial steamers between Norfolk, Virginia, and Baltimore, Maryland, to ferry passengers to his stagecoaches. One of Smith's riders, Virginia planter Clifford Cabell, wrote,

These coaches were considered the height of elegance and convenience and a most rapid and luxurious mode of travel … [Smith] has caused to be moved from the northern waters the steamboat ‘Champion’ on account of its great speed, so that on reaching Baltimore the stage coach passengers would meet with no delay making connection at the close of transit from the ‘Champion.’²³

Once, according to J. W. Bell, when Smith was deprived unexpectedly of the services of the captain and pilot of a steamboat … he undauntedly took command of the boat and charge of the wheel himself, and successfully made the hazardous trip through a fierce storm on Chesapeake Bay. Not wishing to lose ground to his competition, Smith believed the ship had to sail on time and reach port before his rival, despite his inexperience and poor weather. Characteristic of his impulsive nature, it was not the last time reckless personal bravery took center stage versus more reasoned caution. Infatuated with further expanding his burgeoning business empire, Smith looked westward. He shut down the Baltimore-Norfolk line and soon the Champion plied the coastal waters semi-weekly between Pensacola, Florida, and Galveston, Texas. This business venture, however, was unprofitable and Smith soon abandoned it.²⁴

Another financial issue also loomed. After his patron William T. Barry resigned as Postmaster General in April 1835, Smith's lucrative extra mail routes dried up under the more fiscally conservative policies of Barry's replacement, influential Washington Globe editor Amos Kendall. A second problem nipped at Smith's stagecoach line—increased competition. Within a year two low-priced small, but pesky regional rivals operated out of his Culpeper base. His expenses to maintain his vast network soon exceeded his income and much of his fortune disappeared. It was to be a recurring theme throughout much of his adult life—make money and then spend it just as fast.²⁵

The Political Arena Beckons

Despite William Smith's frequent business travel and prolonged absences from home, he stayed connected with his Culpeper constituents, as well as captaining a local militia company. His law practice and mail routes generated just enough cash to avoid bankruptcy. At times, he advocated for his clients before the U.S. Supreme Court, which sparked his interest in national issues. Under the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution individual states reserved all powers and rights not specifically granted by the Constitution to the central Federal government. Smith and many other Southerners differed in their interpretation and application of states' rights. Founding fathers Thomas Jefferson and James Madison had delineated their interpretation of states' rights and self-government in the 1798-99 Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. Smith recounted, My time, money, and such humble talents as God has blessed me with, were freely dedicated to the propagation of the great principles of the Democratic party, in season and out of season.²⁶

On Monday, February 15, 1836, leading Democrats from four counties convened in the Culpeper courthouse to select a candidate for the district's state senator. They nominated the 39-year-old Smith for the four-year term, giving him 21 votes to 11 for Col. Linn Banks of Madison. A committee informed Smith of the selection and requested his acceptance. Although he deeply and gratefully appreciated it, Smith protested that he could not be a candidate because he was deeply in debt. Fearing that politics might bring financial ruin, he declined the nomination. However, he yielded to party leaders who insisted that it was his duty. Smith would follow the pattern several times in the ensuing years. He placed an acceptance speech and thank-you note in a Richmond newspaper.²⁷

Smith opposed Whig incumbent Daniel F. Slaughter, a well-financed Culpeper native whose re-election seemed certain. However, Smith repeatedly hammered home his populist message that the people controlled the power and policies of the state legislature, which should do the bidding of their constituency. In particular, he attacked Slaughter's support for the existing system where the State Senate dictated the vote of the U.S. Senators it appointed. Two years earlier, anti-Jackson legislators then holding the majority of seats directed Senator W. Cabell Rives, Smith's patron, to contest the president's controversial banking policies. A frustrated Rives, his hands tied by Virginia policy, resigned in protest rather than introduce resolutions censuring his friend Andrew Jackson.

By mid-year 1836 Jackson's supporters dominated Old Dominion politics. The state legislature ordered Senators John Tyler and Benjamin W. Leigh, Extra Billy's antagonist, to expunge the anti-Jackson resolutions. Tyler, no friend of Old Hickory, resigned rather than obey. Rives returned to the Senate to replace Tyler. Leigh also refused, but defiantly clung to his seat. Smith and other Jackson supporters argued that if the people had elected the state senators, then they should have the unquestioned right to dictate how their senators voted in Washington. Smith's message echoed the prevailing sentiment in his district and he upset Slaughter for the state senate.²⁸

Smith's first venture into politics resulted in an unexpected glorious victory that pleased the editor of the anti-Whig Richmond Examiner: We have met the enemy and they are ours! The bitter and hard-fought campaign, in which Extra Billy won my spurs, initiated a successful political career that spanned four decades. After an active canvass I was handsomely elected, he crowed, so I commenced public life.²⁹

On August 25 his wife gave birth to their eighth child, Thomas. William Smith soon suffered an embarrassing family situation. His four sisters had all married prominent Virginians and his two brothers were wealthy lawyers. His brother Thomas was the prosecuting attorney on the Fredericksburg judicial circuit. Preferring a more congenial and higher profession, he later graduated from the Episcopal Seminary in Alexandria and entered the ministry. The youngest brother, James Madison Smith, graduated from the University of Virginia. A brilliant essayist and journalist, he actively contributed to the state's Democratic Party.³⁰

On September 7 the hot-tempered James Smith and his in-law Marcellus Bell assaulted and badly injured an unarmed newspaperman in a tavern in Danville. Reporter editor Thomas A. Terry enraged the duo by his repeated railing about William Smith's negligence as a mail contractor. James Smith repeatedly hit Terry with a heavy cane, while Bell tried to hold the onlookers at bay with loaded pistols. However, the crowd defied Bell and rushed to the assistance of the prostrated and bleeding newsman. When unarmed civil authorities arrived to break up the brawl, Smith and Bell resisted arrest. They tried to shoot Dr. J. B. Campbell, who was assisting the police sergeant. Bell then fired a bullet at another recent arrival, attorney George White, penetrating his hand, coat, and waistcoat. A reporter commented, The decision and bravery of the gentlemen who seized their aggressors are widely commended. Smith and Bell are both in jail awaiting their trial. It would not be the last time members of the Smith family, out of protective instinct, rashly reacted to attacks on Extra Billy.³¹

His family matters set aside, State Senator William Smith tackled Virginia's inefficient and inherently corrupt banking system. Historian Gregory K. Glassner has written,

Eastern counties favored an increase in the capital of established financial institutions with more branches, while the newer communities to the west wanted more state chartered banks. Smith fought for strict regulation, major state investment in banking projects, ‘hard money currency’ and limitations on the total number of banks.

Smith's position in many ways mirrored President Jackson's beliefs, although he recognized the need for strong banks to spur his district's economic growth.³²

Smith emerged as the acknowledged leader of the Democratic Party in this body [the State Senate], which was then distinguished for its learning and talents. A portion of both parties proposed to make him their presiding officer; but his political friends, unwilling to lose his services on the floor, at this important crisis, declared that they, and not the opposition, would elevate him to this office, if he desired it. Mr. Smith declined this honor.³³

His oratorical skills drew considerable attention from his peers, political observers, and newspapermen. In the contentious 1836 presidential election, Smith reluctantly supported retiring Jackson's vice president, Martin Van Buren. The New Yorker was unpopular in the South for refusing to take a stand on the slavery/abolition issue, as was his running mate, Kentuckian Richard M. Johnson, who had defeated Virginia's William C. Rives in balloting at the national convention in May in Baltimore. Taking an unusual strategy, the underdog Whigs ran four regional candidates instead of one national choice, hoping to siphon enough votes from Van Buren to force the House of Representatives to select the next president. The stratagem failed and the better organized Democrat prevailed. In Smith's heavily Democratic district, voters cast 1,418 ballots for Van Buren against 878 for the Whig-South ticket of Hugh Lawson White and Virginia's own John Tyler.³⁴

Smith's strong stance on several key issues created enemies among the Whig Party, which advocated a strong, Federal-backed banking system, industrial growth and modernization, and less dependency on the egalitarian agricultural society espoused by so many of Virginia's old-line Jeffersonian Democrats. Because the Whigs held a decided majority of seats in the State Senate, Smith's radical position rarely translated into legislation he endorsed.³⁵

After being named to the Committee on Claims and the Committee on General Laws, Smith led efforts to rewrite Virginia's statutes and introduce legislation revamping the state's banking system. In January 1837 he introduced a resolution demanding a formal investigation of the state's charter banks. After the measure passed, Smith chaired a special committee where he argued that only a few individuals controlled the banking capital of the entire state. His efforts to expose the issue yielded greater oversight and regulation of the state banks and other perceived benefits such as currency backed by hard assets. However, he failed to garner enough support to limit the number of state-chartered banks, one of his key objectives.³⁶

Senator Smith became thoroughly conversant in the various issues of the day, including whether the state or the Federal government should register and regulate private corporations. In February he argued,

My mill pond, which spreads pestilence around it, as well as every other nuisance, is abated. My land required for the erection of the mill or the opening of a road is taken. A portion of our property, in the shape of taxes, for the support of the Government, is levied only when demanded by public interests. Ought corporate interest lie on higher ground?

Smith would, like his failed opposition to bank charters, be stymied in his efforts to fight legislation that streamlined the process of chartering mines and manufacturing.³⁷

Early in 1838, Democratic Congressman John M. Patton resigned his seat in the Thirteenth District to become Virginia's senior councilor. Culpeper politician Linn Banks, the state's longtime Speaker of the House, announced his candidacy to fill Patton's unexpired term. Many of Smith's friends urged him to run, believing him to be a better candidate. They proposed a formal convention to decide between the two, but Colonel Banks insisted he would run anyway. Both sides dug in and the resulting emotions threatened to split the party. Smith recalled,

This very naturally produced great dissatisfaction, taking advantage of which Mr. Slaughter, a Whig, announced himself a candidate. My friends urged that I too should announce myself a candidate, insisting that I could beat them both. This, however, I declined, reminding my friends that our Democratic majority in the district was 600 only; that our defeat would be inevitable, and that I would be held responsible for it.³⁸

Banks, Smith, and the divided party's leadership compromised—Banks would compete against Daniel Slaughter and Smith would run whenever the Whigs would not run a candidate. Smith threw his fall support to Linn Banks and actively campaigned on his behalf in the special election in which Colonel Banks scored a narrow come-from-behind victory. He repeated his canvassing the following year in the general election that Banks won by 300 votes.³⁹

Incumbent U.S. Senator William C. Rives' term expired in early March 1839. The longtime Democrat's voting pattern and open flirtation with Whig policies alienated many in his party, so his supporters formed their own splinter group, the Conservatives. Smith and the minority Sub-Treasury Democrats backed their own candidate, the Whigs supported John Tyler, and partisan bitterness and factional animosity ran high. Smith became the de facto spokesperson of his party in strongly opposing his former benefactor Rives' re-election.

Smith became embroiled in a spirited debate with John S. Pendleton, a veteran Whig senate leader from Rappahannock County. After Pendleton heatedly advocated his party's standards, Smith rose to deliver a rebuttal. He elucidated fundamental Democratic tenets, equating them to the grand moral adjunct of the Christian principle. He labeled Rives' Conservatives as disconnected aristocrats opposed to the agrarian fundamentals of the common man. He warned they were about to commit an extraordinary act of political prostitution while the Conservatives are ready and anxious for that unholy embrace, from which no good can come. Smith's lengthy oration reflected classic Jeffersonian beliefs, hearkening back to the old Declaration of Independence catchphrase life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.⁴⁰

Extra Billy eloquently argued that classic Democratic philosophy:

is a principle of humanity, benevolence and love. It seeks to abuse no man, but to elevate all. It seeks to alleviate human suffering, to bind up the broken-hearted, and to make us love one another as ourselves. It labors to purify the affections and expel from the human heart that selfishness which is the source of such innumerable woes … a principle of veneration and change, with ceaseless efforts for the happiness of man, and bears the same relation to