Francis Henney Smith

Francis Henney Smith
Francis Henney Smith, first Superintendent of Virginia Military Institute.
Born	October 18, 1812 Norfolk, Virginia
Died	March 21, 1890(1890-03-21) (aged 77) Lexington, Virginia
Buried at	Stonewall Jackson Memorial Cemetery Lexington, Virginia
Allegiance	United States of America Confederate States of America
Service/branch	United States Army  Confederate States Army
Years of service	1833–1836 (USA) 1861–1865 (CSA)
Rank	Second Lieutenant (USA) Major General (VA Militia) Colonel (CSA)
Unit	1st U.S. Artillery
Commands held	9th Virginia Infantry Virginia Military Institute
Battles/wars	American Civil War
Other work	Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute

Francis Henney Smith (October 18, 1812–March 21, 1890) was an American military officer, mathematician and educator. After graduating from West Point and a brief service in the United States Army, he became the first Superintendent of the Virginia Military Institute on its establishment in 1839, and held that post until shortly before his death. His superintendency included the four years of the American Civil War, during which he served as a major general in the Virginia militia and a colonel in the Confederate States Army.

Smith was born in Norfolk, Virginia. He married Miss Sarah Henderson on June 9, 1835 at West Point, New York. They had seven children.

Smith graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1833 and served as a second lieutenant in the United States Army until he resigned his commission on May 1, 1836. Thereafter, he was a professor of mathematics at Hampden–Sydney College from 1836 to 1839. When the Virginia Military Institute was established in Lexington, board of trustees member John Thomas Lewis Preston successfully recruited Smith to be the school's first superintendent. By the time classes had begun on November 11, 1839, Preston had been appointed to the faculty, and he worked with Smith at VMI until retiring in 1882.

Some time before the Civil War, he was appointed colonel in the Virginia Militia.

Smith was the author of An Elementary Treatise on Algebra (1858) and co-author of The American Statistical Arithmetic, Designed for Academies and Schools (1845), Best Methods of Conducting Common Schools (1849) and College Reform (1850) and translator of An Elementary Treatise on Analytical Geometry (1860). Smith is also known as Sigma Nu International Fraternity's spiritual founder.