Austen E. Smith was born around 1829 in Virginia to William and Elizabeth Smith. His father was a lawyer and Democratic politician who served as governor of Virginia from 1846 until 1849. The family lived in Fauquier County, Virginia, and by 1850, he was working as a lawyer.

 

In 1857, President James Buchanan appointed him as navy agent and sent him to San Francisco, California. He supported the Democratic Party, and he served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1860.

 

During the Civil War, he supported secession and floated the possibility of a Pacific Republic. He declared that the “Pacific States, have, thank God, the domain upon which to build up a splendid empire of their own.” He travelled to Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1861 “for the purpose of settling [his] accounts” as navy agent. He was arrested in New York City on August 2, 1861, and imprisoned at Fort Warren in Boston, Massachusetts.

 

He was exchanged for Philadelphia merchant William Ayres in April 1862 and quickly made his way to Virginia. He joined the Confederate army, and he was wounded in the shoulder during the Seven Days’ Battles. Surgeons amputated his arm, but he died in Richmond on June 29, 1862.

SOURCES