Ewell Smith

Ewell Smith (May 3, 1819 – Sept. 27, 1892) was a deputy sheriff in Scott County prior to the Civil War and helped to organize the Scott County Rangers, a Confederate group, early in the war. He was one of 17 men indicted in the murders of Ranson Vanover and Larkin Cross during the war.

Biography

Born May 3, 1819 in Kentucky, Ewell Smith was the son of John Lampkin Smith (1794-1875) and Keziah “Kizzy” Gibson (1799-1864). His siblings included Mary “Polly” Sharp (1821-1916), Elizabeth Gibson (1824-1915), William Redin Smith (1827-1906), Sterling Cooke Smith (1830-1902), Nancy Mays Carlock (1835-1896), Emily C. Rice (1838-1913), Jane Bruce Atkins (1843-1888) and Anna Eliza Atkins (1845-1903).

Ewell’s father was the first Circuit Court Clerk of Scott County, and later served as Scott County Clerk and Master.

Smith married Julia Ann Owens (1828-1882) in 1848 in Campbell County (which Scott County was then a part of). They had many children: James Smith (born about 1851), John L. Smith (born about 1852), Calvin B. Smith (1853-1929), Poliet Smith (1855-1920), Sarah Smith (born about 1858), Ann Smith (born about 1860), Keziah McFarland (1863-1945), Mary Smith (born about 1864), and Sterlin C. Smith (1869-1968).

The Smith family lived in Grundy County, Tenn. when the 1870 census was taken, and in Coffee County, Tenn. when the 1880 census was taken. He later moved to Texas, where he died.

Prior to the Civil War

Ewell Smith served as postmaster at Straight Fork in western Campbell County, near the Scott-Campbell county line, a position he was appointed to on Aug. 5, 1850. In 1855, he was appointed a delegate to represent Campbell County at a state convention in support of Andrew Johnson for President of the United States. He later was a deputy sheriff in Scott County. His brother-in-law, James “Jim” Sharp, was Scott County’s third sheriff in the 1860s. Sharp married Ewell’s sister, Mary “Polly” Gibson.

An Ewell Smith was listed on the 1860 census slave schedule as owning one slave. However, it’s not clear that it was the same Ewell Smith. There were three Ewell Smiths who lived in Scott County at the time.

Civil War

Although most Scott Countians were loyal to the Union during the Civil War — rejecting secession by a margin of 541 to 19 — Ewell Smith was one of the Scott Countians who supported the Rebels.

There is some confusion because, as noted above, there were three Ewell Smiths who lived in Scott County at the time of the Civil War. One of them was the son of Methodist circuit rider Isaac Smith, who was a well-known supporter of the Confederacy. The other was also the son of a John L. Smith — John Letcher Smith. (This last Ewell Smith served in the Union army during the war, enlisting in the 32nd Kentucky Infantry at Burnside, Ky. in 1862.)

However, according to historian Paul Roy in Scott County in the Civil War, the Confederate Ewell Smith was the son of John Lampkin Smith and Keziah Gibson.

Smith helped organize the Scott County Rangers around the time of secession. This group of men apparently met in the Straight Fork community and organized. According to an account by historian David Jeffers, one of them jumped up during the meeting and proclaimed, “If I lived in hell I’d fight for the devil!”

After Smith was injured early in the war, his uncle, Henry Gibson, took over as captain of the Scott County Rangers.

Isaac Griffith, a Confederate soldier from Brimstone, wrote late in life that he enlisted in the Rebel army in Jacksboro, Tenn. in January 1862, under Capt. Ernal Smith, which is believed to be a reference to Ewell Smith.

On Nov. 7, 1862, Ewell Smith and other members of the Scott County Rangers hanged two men on Buffalo Creek near Smith Creek: Ranson Vanover and Larkin Cross. Vanover was a Union soldier who was home on furlough. Cross was not an enlisted man.

Several conflicting accounts of the incident have been given. It is generally believed, as written in Enclave: Scott County’s Role in the Civil War, published by the Independent Herald, that the murderers were among a regiment of more than 1,000 Confederate soldiers who had raided Scott County from Kentucky, targeting the homes of known Union supporters on Jellico Creek and Buffalo Creek. Information uncovered more recently by the Scott County Historical Society indicates that the murderers were members of the Scott County Rangers; 17 of them were indicted by a Scott County grand jury after the war. In his book, Dusty Bits of the Forgotten Past, the historian H. Clay Smith wrote that Ewell Smith’s brother — Callie Smith (likely J. Calvin Morgan Smith, 1833-1927) — was home on leave and had encountered hostilities due to his involvement in the Rebel army. As he was attempting to flee Scott County by way of a neutral family member’s farm on Smith Creek, he and some men with him were ambushed by members of the Scott County Home Guard. Shortly thereafter, they encountered Vanover and Cross, and hanged them. Elements of all three accounts may be true.

The Smith family was bitterly divided by the Civil War. His father, John L. Smith, was generally neutral, but his mother’s family — the Gibsons — were strongly pro-Confederacy.

Ewell’s cousin, Drewry Smith, lived at Smith Creek, and it was his home Ewell Smith was attempting to reach on Nov. 7, 1862, according to the historian H. Clay Smith. Drewry Smith was loyal to the Union. However, the historian H. Clay Smith identifies Drewry Smith as Ewell Smith’s uncle. The Drewry Smith who lived on Smith Creek was Drewry “Red” Smith Jr. His father, Drewry Smith Sr., was Ewell’s uncle (brother of John L. Smith) and lived in Campbell County at the time.

Post-war years

On Aug. 16, 1866, Ewell Smith and 16 other men were indicted by a Scott County grand jury for the murders of Cross and Vanover. Also indicted were Ewell’s brothers, Calvin Smith and Reddin Smith, along with a Joseph Smith, though his exact relationship to Ewell and Calvin is unclear.

Also indicted were Perry Gibson, Pryor Gibson, Arch Keith, Jasper Keith, John Keith, Ramsey Keith, James Tye, Isaac Griffith, Nicholas Patterson, Ramsey Patterson, Ewell Smith, William Bruce, Frank Gibson, and William McCoy.

James Tye was a cousin through Ewell Smith’s uncle’s family (Drewry Smith Sr. married Mary “Polly” Tye). The Gibsons were cousins through Ewell’s mother’s family.

It appears none of the accused men stood trial; most or all of them fled Scott County prior to the indictment being handed down by the grand jury. That likely explains why Ewell Smith left Scott County after the war. While he wound up first in Middle Tennessee and then in Texas, his brother Reddin settled down in Barren County, Ky., and Calvin wound up in Fresno, Calif.

Ewell Smith may have briefly settled in Oklahoma prior to moving south to North Texas.

A report in the Southern Standard newspaper in McMinnville, Tenn. on March 29, 1884, stated that Capt. Ewell Smith had been charged with burning the courthouse in McMinnville, and had been arrested in Texas and returned to a jail in Nashville before making bond. His son, James, was also arrested. Both men were acquitted during a trial in November 1884. It’s not clear that it was the same Ewell Smith from Scott County, though he lived in nearby Coffee County in 1880 and had apparently moved to Texas by 1882 (his wife, Julia, died in Texas on Oct. 12, 1882), and had a son named James Smith.

Death

Ewell Smith was murdered in Bowie, Tex. — a small town northwest of Dallas — on Sept. 27, 1892, at age 73. According to a newspaper article, he was struck in the head with a hammer by W.H. Crosby, who was arrested in connection with Smith’s death.

Smith was buried at Hedgepeth Cemetery in Montague, Tex.