William "Extra Billy" Smith (6 September 1797-18 May 1887) was Governor of Virginia (D) from 1 January 1846 to 1 January 1849, succeeding James McDowell and preceding John B. Floyd, and again from 1 January 1864 to 9 May 1865, succeeding John Letcher and preceding Francis Harrison Pierpont. Smith was also a Major-General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Biography[]
William Smith was born in Marengo, King George County, Virginia in 1797, and he became a lawyer in Culpeper County in 1818. In 1827, he established a line of mail and passenger coaches and expanded the business into the American South in 1831, earning the nickname "Extra Billy" for the extra fees charged to President Andrew Jackson when Jackson commissioned Smith to deliver mail between Washington DC and the Georgia state capital of Milledgeville. From 1836 to 1841, he served as a Virginia state senator as a Democratic Party member, and he served in the US House of Representatives from 1841 to 1842 before serving as Governor of Virginia from 1846 to 1849. In April 1849, he moved to California and presided over the first Democratic state convention, before serving in Congress again from Virginia's 7th district from 1853 to 1861, succeeding Thomas H. Bayly and preceding Charles H. Upton.
When the American Civil War broke out, Smith declined to be commissioned as a Brigadier-General due to his admission that he was ignorant of drill and tactics, but he enjoyed the experience of commanding Confederate State Army troops after the death of John Quincy Marr at the Battle of Fairfax Courthouse in 1861. He became colonel of the 49th Virginia Infantry, and he served in the Confederate Congress before returning to field command in 1862 during the Peninsula Campaign. He commanded a brigade in Jubal Early's division at Antietam, and he was promoted to Brigadier-General on 31 January 1863. On 10 July 1863, he resigned his commission after he was not mentioned in Early's dispatches after the Battle of Gettysburg, being disappointed at his lack of attention. From 1864 to 1865, he served as Governor of Virginia, and he served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1877 to 1879 before dying at his Warrenton estate in 1887.