Huachuca
Illustrated, vol 1, 1993:Huachuca
Illustrated, vol 1, 1993:
chuca Illustrat
chuca Illustrat
Roll Call:
Col. Cornelius C. Smith
chuca Illustrat
The Tucson-born Cornelius Cole Smith (1869-1936) was to add luster to
a distinguished military family. His father, an officer in the Union Army's
California Column, served after the war as the Quartermaster at Fort Lowell
in Tucson. The younger Smith enlisted in 1890 and a year later won our nation's
highest award for gallantry against the Sioux at White River, South Dakota.
Commissioned in 1892, the Medal of Honor winner went on to serve in Cuba
during the Spanish-American War, in the Philippines under Generals Leonard
Wood and John J. Pershing, and in South America as an attaché. His
global career ended at Fort Huachuca where, as a colonel, he commanded the
10th Cavalry and the post from 1918-19.
Cornelius Cole Smith wearing his Medal of Honor.
He served at Huachuca as commanding officer of Troop G, 5th U.S. Cavalry, from December 1912 until December 1914. He had a brief tour with the 4th U.S. Cavalry at Huachuca in the fall of 1912, but was transferred to the 5th since the 4th was due for rotation to Hawaii and Smith had just returned from almost nine years in an Asiatic station (with the 14th U.S. Cavalry in the Philippine Islands). It was while commanding Troop G, 5th Cavalry, that he took the surrender of Colonel Emilio Kosterlitzky, chief of Mexican federal forces at Nogales, on March 13, 1913.
Smith served under General Leonard Wood in Mindanao, Philippine Islands, 1903-06, and was appointed commander of the Philippine Constabulary by General Pershing in 1910. He built a camp (Owen Beirne) adjacent to Fort Bliss, in 1919, which became the prototype for several others erected to serve troops just after World War I. He died at Riverside, California, on January 10, 1936.
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2d Lt. Cornelius C. Smith on favorite horse "Blue,"
-------------Capt.
Cornelius C. Smith (far right) as Major of Philippine
in front of his quarters at Fort Wingate, N.M., in 1895.-------------Constabulary, Camp Kiethly, Mindanao, P.I., 1910,
Photo courtesy Cornelius C. Smith, Jr.----------------------------with Brig. Gen. John J. Pershing and Moro chieftans.
-------------------------------------------------------------- Photo courtesy Cornelius C. Smith, Jr.
Captain Cornelius Cole Smith in the Philippines in
1904. Photo courtesy Col. Cornelius C. Smith, Jr.
