Horatio M. Smith of Orwell, Ashtabula County, Ohio was 27 years old when he enlisted into Company K of the 105th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was made Quartermaster Sergeant and demonstrated an extraordinary ability to do this job. Career advancements came in rapid succession and by the end of the war he was a Major.
While Horatio experienced significant personal and financial difficulties in life after the war, this article from The Inter Ocean of Chicago reflects the great respect others had for his accomplishments. This young man, not yet 30 years old, made a substantial difference in the outcome of the Civil War
“Take for instance the quartermaster’s department. No small army can furnish or train quartermaster’s officers who are capable of handling a large one. In the war of the rebellion the Pennsylvania railroad was the great training school of the quartermaster. Outside of those who had that training, there were a few men as distinctly born for this position as poets are to sing. It required time to develop such. The gift was divine, exceptional, and indiscoverable, except by experience. Major Horatio M. Smith, the great post and department quartermaster at Chattanooga, by whose energies miracles were performed in supplying Sherman’s army during those months of daily conflict between that point and Atlanta, was a clerk in a country village store until Aug. 10, 1862, and was a second lieutenant, when the army occupied Chattanooga after the battle of Chickamauga. Accident showed General Thomas his merit. Within six weeks he was give charge of work that grew in variety and importance of character until the hopes of a great army rested on his shoulders and hundreds who were his superiors in preparation, experience, and what would seem essential qualities, were serving gladly and willingly under his orders. He was a man fitted exactly for that work, but such fitness could be determined only by experience, not by previous study or opportunity.”
The Inter Ocean, (Chicago, Illinois), 09-04-1898, page 19
To learn more about Major Horatio M. Smith, see his WikiTree profile: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-136444