"Rebel Bill" Smith, CSA
"Rebel Bill" Smith
William O. Smith, better known as "Rebel Bill" Smith was a captain in the 2nd Battalion Kentucky Mounted Rifles.
In August of 1864 Smith formed his own cavalry battalion, "William Smith's Battalion of Kentucky and Virginia Cavalry". Organization was completed on December 24, 1864 and the muster rolls boosted over 600 men in five companies.
The commanders were as follows:
- Melvin B. Lawson (men from Pike and Logan Counties)
- John C. Chafin (men from Wayne and Cabell Counties)
- Julius Williamson (men from Pike County)
- John H. Livingston (men from Lawrence County)
- William Green Wells (men from Johnson County)
In its short life the battalion wreaked havoc in the Big Sandy region, and its ranks included the likes of "Devil Anse" Hatfield and Randal McCoy, the famous feudist clan leaders.
"Devil" Anse Hatfield
Library of Congress
The battalion burned Union boats on the Big Sandy, accomplished raids at Paintsville in Johnson County, Peach Orchard in Lawrence County, and in Floyd and Pike Counties.
In six months Smith's men developed a reputation for viciousness and determination and some of the men were still in the field in Wayne and Logan Counties as late as August of 1865.
The "Charleston Journal" for November 9, 1864, noted that Colonel Smith was now the "supreme commander" of Cabell and Wayne Counties.
In Lawrence County he even took over one of the voting precincts during the Presedential Elections of 1864 and to mock the system, had one of his companies vote for "Good ole" Abe Lincoln. It is very possible that Smith's presence was part of the reason why no election was held at all in Johnson County.
POST WAR
"Two days later, much more exciting news was sweeping up & down the Big Sandy
River: "Frank Phillips has been killed!"
A Colonel William O. Smith was reported to have been the slayer.
It was said he held a warrant for the arrest of the ex-deputy and that, in
trying to serve it, he had been forced to fire the fatal shot.
Mountain folks began to put together developments of the last few weeks and
found they jibed with the report.
Smith had been a Confederate officer during the war and had gained such a
reputation that he earned the cognomen of "Rebel Bill". He had operated along
the Big Sandy and was reputed to have held at bay a regiment of Federal
soldiers, as well as to have captured a part of Garfield's regiment as it
ascended the Sandy in pushboats.
More recently he had been engaged in sawing
lumber in the upper Tug country for the Norfolk & Western, and it was while
busy at this occupation that he came in contact with Phillips. That was a few
weeks before the rumored killing, and the ex-deputy at the time threatened the
ex-colonel with death, accusing him of capturing his father during the war and
sending him to prison camp, where he died.
The night after this meeting, someone entered the bedroom of Colonel Smith and
tried to assassinate him while he slept, but the attempt resulted in nothing
more serious than a scalp wound.
Smith accused Phillips. The latter offered as an alibi that he was at home
fifteen miles away at the time of the shooting. But this did not satisfy the
rabid Confederate colonel and he swore out the warrant...."
Virgil Carrington: "The Hatfields & the McCoys"
SOURCES
"A Bloody Battle in Louisa?", by John B. Wells, III; published in "The Rebel Yell", The Eastern Kentucky Brigade Newsletter of the SCV, Vol. 2, Iss. 9, March 1996
"The Hatfields & the McCoys", by Virgil Carrington. Graciously sent to me by Captain Champ Ferguson (aka Terry Holmes), Ferguson's KY and TN Mountain Cavalry
"History of Lawrence County", compiled by Regina Tackett, Patricia Jackson and Janice Thompson