Smith, Ralph J. (Ralph Julius), 1840-1913 (Personal Name)

Reminiscences of the civil war, and other sketches, 1911 title page (Ralph J. Smith, Sometimes Private) page i (Company K, Second Texas Infantry; born at Centerville, St. Mary's Parish, La., July 19, 1840; now resident of San Marcos, Hayes County, Texas)

ancestry.com, via WWW, February 29, 2012 (Ralph Julius Smith; born July 19, 1840 in Centerville, St Mary, Louisiana; son of Alfred Smith and Martha Cook; married Permelia Catherine Logan on September 30. 1863; died April 17, 1913 in San Marcos, Hays, Texas; served in the second Texas Infantry Company K; fought at Vicksburg for 46 days until his regiment surrended on July 4, 1863; was paroled after 11 days as a prisoner by General Grant; with his men walked for 20 days to Beaumont, Texas and then took a train to Houston; for the remainder of the war he served at Galveston, Texas)

Dead Confederates, A Civill War Era Blog, via WWW, February 29, 2012 (Texas Joins the Confederacy; Pvt. Ralph J. Smith, in Company K of the Second Texas Infantry; enlisted in the 2nd Texas in October 1861 at Galveston; was captured at Shiloh in 1862, exchanged that fall, captured and paroled at Vicksburg in July 1863, and eventually surrendered with his regiment at the end of the war, finally being paroled in August 1865; published a short memoir in 1911, Reminiscences of Civil War)