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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.
a commission tendered him by Governor Yates, devoted his time and means liberally to the recruiting and organization of regiments for service in the field, and procuring supplies for the sick and wounded. In 1866 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature, and was re-elected in 1868 and '70, serving, during his last term, as Speaker. In 1877 he was appointed by Governor Cullom a member of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission, of which body he served as President until 1883. He was a man of remarkably genial temperament, liberal impulses, and wide popularity. Died, March 25, 1886.
SMITH, William Sooy, soldier and civil engineer, was born at Tarlton, Pickaway County, Ohio, July 22, 1830; graduated at Ohio University in 1849, and, at the United States Military Academy, in 1853, having among his classmates, at the latter, Generals McPherson, Schofield and Sheridan. Coming to Chicago the following year, he first found employment as an engineer on the Illinois Central Railroad, but later became assistant of Lieutenant-Colonel Graham in engineer service on the lakes; a year later took charge of a select school in Buffalo; in 1857 made the first surveys for the International Bridge at Niagara Falls, then went into the service of extensive locomotive and bridge-works at Trenton, N. J., in their interest making a visit to Cuba, and also superintending the construction of a bridge across the Savannah River. The war intervening, he returned North and was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel and assigned to duty as Assistant Adjutant-General at Camp Denison, Ohio, but, in June, 1862, was commissioned Colonel of the Thirteenth Ohio Volunteers, participating in the West Virginia campaigns, and later, at Shiloh and Perryville. In April, 1862, he was promoted Brigadier-General of volunteers, commanding divisions in the Army of the Ohio until the fall of 1862, when he joined Grant and took part in the Vicksburg campaign, as commander of the First Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps. Subsequently he was made Chief of the Cavalry Department, serving on the staffs of Grant and Sherman, until compelled to resign, in 1864, on account of impaired health. During the war General Smith rendered valuable service to the Union cause in great emergencies, by
