Ballard Smith was a soldier and congressman from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

Biography

Smith was born in

Hanover County, Virginia Hanover County is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 109,979. Its county seat is Hanover, Virginia, Hanover. Hanove ...

. In the Revolutionary War, he rose to the now-defunct rank of

captain lieutenant Captain lieutenant or captain-lieutenant is a military rank, used in a number of navies worldwide and formerly in the British Army. Northern Europe Denmark, Norway and Finland The same rank is used in the navies of Denmark (), Norway () and Fin ...

in the 1st Virginia Regiment of the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies representing the Thirteen Colonies and later the United States during the American Revolutionary War. It was formed on June 14, 1775, by a resolution passed by the Second Continental Co ...

. In the 1790s, he rose to the rank of

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

. He was a member of the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

from 1810 to 1813 and was later elected a

Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party (also referred to by historians as the Republican Party or the Jeffersonian Republican Party), was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early 1790s. It championed l ...

to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

in 1814, serving from 1815 to 1821. Afterwards, Smith returned to the House of Delegates in 1824, serving again until 1826 and again in 1836 and 1837.

Electoral history

*1815; Smith was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating Federalist John Mathews. *1817; Smith was re-elected unopposed. *1819; Smith was re-elected unopposed.

References

Retrieved on 2009-05-07
Service record
from Francis B. Heitman's ''Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army''. Heitman says that the Lieutenant Ballard Smith who served in the Revolution died on 20 March 1794, i.e. before the subject of this article served in Congress. Heitman is in error or these are two different men. Continental Army officers from Virginia Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia People from Hanover County, Virginia People from Greenbrier County, West Virginia 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives 19th-century members of the Virginia General Assembly {{Virginia-Representative-stub