Edmund Kirby Smith was born in St Augustine, Florida, on 16th May, 1824. He studied at the U.S. Military Academy. He was nicknamed "Seminole" at the academy, and upon his graduation from West Point, was sent to Mexico for the Mexican War. Here he served in the infantry and won two brevets.
In 1855 he was transferred to the cavalry and served until he resigned as a major in the 2nd Cavalry in April of 1861. During the time between the end of the Mexican War and his resignation, he had been teaching mathematics at West Point and was wounded in 1859 fighting Indians in Texas.
On the outbreak of the War for Southern Independence Kirby Smith joined the Confederate Army and by June had reached the rank of brigadier general. In July 1861, Abraham Lincoln sent Major General Irvin McDowell to take Richmond, the new base the Confederate government.
On 21st July McDowell engaged the Confederate Army at Manassas. The Confederate troops led by Joseph E. Johnson, Thomas Stonewall Jackson, James Jeb Stuart, Jubal Early, Braxton Bragg and P.G.T. Beauregard, and Kirby Smith easily defeated the inexperienced Union Army. Gen. Kirby Smith was briefly taken out of service to the Confederacy after receiving a bullet in the chest at the 1st Battle of Manassas.
