Enos Smith (1833 - 1865)

Born 1833 in United States

Died 20 Feb 1865 at about age 32 in Florence, South Carolina, United States

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Biography

Enos Smith was born about 1833 in New Jersey^[1] or Easton^[2], Pennsylvania^[3]. He was the child of Hester. He served with the famous 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War.

He stood about 5 feet and 7 inches (1.7m) tall with brown skin, brown eyes, and black hair when he enlisted in 1863.^[4]

Occupations

• 1860: Day labor
• 1850: Boatman

The Delaware and Lehigh Rivers merge at Easton.

Residences

• 1863: Easton, Pennsylvania (military enlistment)
• 1860: West Easton, Pennsylvania with his wife, children and mother
• 1850: Easton, Pennsylvania with his mother and brothers

Military Service and Death

Private Enos Smith died of disease during the United States Civil War.

During the Civil War, he served as a Private in Company H of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, the second^[5] regiment in the United States made up entirely of enlisted men of color. He was about 30 years old, single and working as a laborer when he enlisted on 21 April 1863 from Easton, Pennsylvania.^[6]

Private Smith was captured on 16 July 1863 on the Gullah island of Sol Legare in Charleston County, South Carolina and survived the prisoner of war camps a year and a half until he finally succumbed and died of disease on 20 February 1865 a few weeks before black soldiers were finally exchanged. Black soldiers were not considered "of equal value" and the Rebels refused to exchange them prior to March 1865.

POW, Charleston Jail

Of Charleston Jail, Captain Samuel C. Timson of the 95th NY had this to say:

There were twenty-one negro soldiers, most of them belonging to Colonel Shaw's Fifty-fourth Mass. regiment of immortal memory, among the number. They were never to be exchanged, but were to be reduced to slavery. They were all that were left of the colored troops captured at Wagner. The rest were bayoneted and shot after they surrendered. Their rations were bread and water; still they would sing Union songs, pouring their melody through their prison bars for the entertainment of the Union officers in the prison and below.^[7]

Research Notes

There is an Enos Smith in the 1840 Easton, Pennsylvania census who is the head of a household with three free white people. Relationship of some kind likely but unclear.

Projects

• 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
• James Island Skirmish 16 July 1863

Sources

1. ↑ 1850 census
2. ↑ descriptive regiment book
3. ↑ 1860 census
4. ↑ descriptive regiment book
5. ↑ and the first with federal recognition; the 1st Kansas Colored Volunteer Infantry regiment was against the wishes of the Secretary of War and filled only six companies, but did see action a full year before the 54th
6. ↑ Emilio, McKay Roster
7. ↑ Emilio, p. 415

• 1850 United States Federal Census Year: 1850; Census Place: Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania; Roll: M432_802; Page: 140A; Image: 286
• 1860 United States Federal Census Year: 1860; Census Place: West Easton, Northampton, Pennsylvania; Roll: M653_1147; Page: 445; Family History Library Film: 805147
• Emilio, Luis Fenollosa. History of the Fifty-Fourth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, 1863-1865, Boston, Massachusetts: Boston Book Co., 1891 (1st ed.) and 1894 (2nd ed.)
• Find A Grave: Memorial #164623460
• National Archives, Catalog #577134. Regimental and Company Books of Civil War Volunteer Union Organizations, compiled 1861 - 1865. Fold3.com. Regimental Descriptive Book.