John Donnell Smith

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Donnell_Smith

Captain John Donnell Smith (June 5, 1829 – December 2, 1928) of Baltimore, Maryland was a biologist and taxonomist. He was also an officer in the Confederate army.

He was a graduate of Yale in 1847, where he was a member of Skull and Bones.

In January 1906, he presented his herbarium consisting of more than 100,000 mounted specimens and his botanical library of over 1600 bound volumes to the Smithsonian Institution. The books pertain mostly to the systematic botany of Mexico and Central America and remain in Baltimore. The herbarium now forms part of the U.S. National Herbarium reference.

Botanical Researcher; trustee of Peabody Institute in Baltimore (1888–1915); Captain in the Confederate Army; Commander of Battery A, 10th Battalion (Huger's Battalion) of Virginia Artillery (known as the Bedford Light Artillery); Served in every campaign and battle of the Army of Northern Virginia; Severely wounded at Gettysburg; present at the surrender at Appomattox in April 1865

He died at age 99. In his last years he was celebrated as the oldest living graduate of Yale.

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YALE COLLEGE John Donnell Smith, B.A. 1847. Born June 5, 1829, in Baltimore, Md Died December 2, 1928, in Baltimore, Md Father, Samuel W. Smith (Princeton ^-1820); son of Robert Smith (B A Princeton 1781), Secretary of the Navy 1802- 05, Attorney-General 1805-09, and Secretary of State 1809- 1811, and Margaret (Smith) Smith; nephew of Samuel Smith, a Brigadier General in the Revolutionary Army and a Major General in the War of 1812; grandson of John Smith, who came to Pennsylvania in 1759 but

m°ved to Baltimore the following year. Mother, Ellinor (Donnell) Smith; daughter of John Donnell, who was born in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Ireland, and came to Baltimore about 1783. Townsend Premium Senior year; member Alpha Delta Phi and Skull and Bones. Read law in office of Brown & Brule in Baltimore 1847- 1850; admitted to the bar in January, 1851, but never practiced law; spent several years in Europe and attended lectures on law and history at University of Heidelberg; in January, 1862, entered the Confederate Army as aide-de-camp to General John B. Magruder; commissioned as a Second Lieutenant of Artillery in Page's Battery in March and the following October transferred to Jordan's Battery as First Lieutenant; in February, 1864, promoted to Captain and subsequently commanded Battery A, 10th Battalion (Huger's Battalion), Virginia Artillery (known as the "Bedford Light Artillery"); served in every campaign and battle of the Army of Northern Virginia, was severely wounded at Gettysburg and commended for his coolness under fire, and was present at the surrender at Appomattox; subsequently engaged in cotton planting in Alabama for a year and in the manufac- 4 Obituary Record ture of bricks in Baltimore for a time; in the accounting department of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad at Cincinnati 1868-1870; had since made his home in Baltimore; had been engaged in botanical research and study for more than thirtyyears, spending much time in Central and South America and Europe; honorary associate in Botany of Smithsonian Institution, to which he gave his botanical library and collections in 1927; trustee of McDonough (Md ) Farm School 1871-72 and of Peabody Institute, Baltimore, 1888-1915; contributor to Bulletin of Torrey Botanical Club and the Botanical Gazette; Fellow of Linnsean Society, London; member American Academy of Arts and Sciences and St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Baltimore. Unmarried. Death due to broncho-pneumonia. Buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore. Survived by several nieces and nephews; one of his grandmeces is the wife of Dr. Stanhope BayneJones, Jr., 'io; and Samuel Y. Smith, ex-ip S., is a grandnephew. George