Smith Captain Ross (2 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Fair. No Jacket. 1st Edition. 12mo. vii, 86 pages. Hardcover bound in pale green cloth. The binding is rubbed and worn and is soiled from handling. Some fraying to the headcap. A sound copy with secure inner hinges. A pencil inscription on the front flyleaf reads "Presented to F. C. Decker by R. H. Decker, Sep. 21st, 1943" (inscription has a big pencil "X" mark through it). Another inscription on the rear pastedown notes that R. H. Decker lived in Jonesboro, TN. Text is a bit toned. Collates complete with 8 plates. The Decker family were noted mountain potters from Chucky Valley in eastern Tennessee, operating Keystone Pottery. The author of the book, Captain Ross Smith, who was born in Jonesboro (Jonesborough) Tennessee in 1846. Smith did not fight in the Civil War. Early in life he obtained work on railroads and travelled through the southeast.("Captain" is the title in the South for Conductor, because, according to the book, the Conductors at the time were paid the same rate as the Captain in the U.S. Army). Ross spent his career as a railroad man and conductor of passenger train "No. 1" that operated between Bristol and Knoxville. He recounts his family history in Washington County, TN as well as extensive experience on the rail lines. He devotes only about 10 pages or so to the Civil War, but the perspective is interesting in that he was a teenager getting odd jobs and travelled extensively while avoiding forces on either side of the conflict (but he worked on lines that delivered supplies mostly to Northern forces). He also gives special attention to how much items cost (40 cents for a gallon of oil), what he got paid for different jobs, and where he and various companions got food and sheltered during their travels. According to one source (we've not found it in the book yet), he later worked on the train that transported the prisoner ex-Presdent Jefferson Davis). Scarce. Not in Howes or Nevins. Appears in Broadfoot 5th Edition but not in Broadfoot 3rd or 4th Editions.

Ross shot down 11 enemy planes, and finished his service as AustraliaĠs most decorated WWI pilot. He is mentioned several times in Lawrence's book, 'Seven Pillars of Wisdom'.