Smith D. Atkins

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 6 dated events in the chronology →

1. April 14, 1865 Wheeler's Confederate cavalry fought Union pursuers at New Hope Creek east of Chapel Hill Retreating cavalry under Joseph Wheeler destroyed the bridge over the rain-swollen New Hope and the other bridges on the road toward Chapel Hill, then attacked Union cavalry trying to cross on fallen trees and driftwood at the Atkins plantation, about eight miles from the village. Cornelia Phillips Spencer, writing from Chapel Hill, called it the last skirmish and perhaps the last blood of the war and recorded that several men were killed on both sides. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Smith D. AtkinsDocumenting the American South: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina (1866), chapter XII
2. April 16-17, 1865 Sherman's orders protect the university and village of Chapel Hill When a Federal officer rode into Chapel Hill at sunset on April 16, President Swain told him of General Sherman's promise to protect the university and village, and the officer said he had received the orders. When Smith D. Atkins's cavalry took the town the next morning, Sherman's orders were obeyed and dwellings and university property were guarded. People: David L. Swain, Smith D. AtkinsSearch the index · Documenting the American South: Kemp P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina, vol. I (1907), p. 743
3. April 17–May 3, 1865 Union troops occupy Chapel Hill Wheeler's Confederates left Chapel Hill at midday on Easter Sunday, April 16, and a small Federal party rode in at sunset, met President David Lowry Swain and returned to camp. Smith D. Atkins's cavalry took possession about 8 a.m. on Monday, April 17, posting guards from the Ninth Michigan at houses that asked for them and quartering officers and horses in the college buildings. Ordered to Greensboro, the brigade left on May 3, leaving a guard at the university that stayed in the college buildings for more than two months. People: David L. Swain, Smith D. AtkinsDocumenting the American South: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina (1866), pp. 166-179 · Also: Documenting the American South: True and Candid Compositions, Erika Lindemann
4. April 30, 1865 Charles P. Mallett wrote that federal troops had held Chapel Hill for fourteen days Writing from Chapel Hill, the merchant Charles P. Mallett reported that Union troops had held the village for fourteen days, that they had behaved tolerably where safeguards were posted but had stripped the surrounding countryside of horses and mules, and that General Judson Kilpatrick had held a review in the village the previous day. People: Smith D. AtkinsDocumenting the American South: Letter from Charles P. Mallet to Henry A. London, April 30, 1865
5. May 3, 1865 General Smith D. Atkins leads his troops out of Chapel Hill Atkins, whose Federal cavalry had held Chapel Hill since mid-April, left the village with his troops on May 3, 1865. Only after he had gone did Eleanor Swain, daughter of the university's president, tell her parents in a short note that she meant to marry him; the wedding took place on August 23. People: Smith D. Atkins, David L. SwainInternet Archive: North Carolina Historical Review 42 (1965), p. 205
6. August 23, 1865 General Smith D. Atkins married Eleanor Swain, daughter of the university president The courtship began during the occupation, when Atkins called on President David Lowry Swain, met his daughter Eleanor, had his regimental band serenade her and gave Swain two horses. Atkins was mustered out in June and the two married in Chapel Hill on August 23, 1865; many invited guests stayed away, students tolled the college bell for three hours and hanged Swain and Atkins in effigy. People: David L. Swain, Smith D. AtkinsDocumenting the American South: True and Candid Compositions, Erika Lindemann, "Civil War"