Joseph Lee Smith (May 28, 1776 – May 24, 1846) was an American lawyer, military officer, judge, veteran of the War of 1812, and the father of Confederate States Army General E. Kirby Smith (1824–1893). Life Joseph Lee Smith was born in New Britain, Connecticut, the son of Elnathan (1738-1826) and Chloe ( Lee) Smith (1746-1825). He was a descendant of 1st Duke of Somerset. His maternal grandfather, Colonel Isaac Lee, Jr. (1717-1802), was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and was a member of the Connecticut General Assembly in 1776, 1778 to 1781, and 1783 to 1791. Smith practiced law in Connecticut until the War of 1812, when he became a lieutenant-colonel in the United States Army and served with distinction in combat. At the Battle of Stoney Creek in Ontario, Canada on June 7, 1813, his quick thinking and action saved the 25th Infantry Regiment from capture. After the war, he remained in the Army, rising to the rank of colonel, when he was placed in command of the 3rd Infantry Regiment in 1818. Discharged from the army in 1821, he returned to his Connecticut law practice. Smith and his family moved to Florida Territory in 1821, when it became part of the United States. From 1823 to 1832 he was a territorial judge. On February 3, 1825, Richard K. Call, Delegate from Florida introduced a resolution calling for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee to investigate Smith on the charge that he took bribes and kickbacks. The resolution was adopted. The investigation went on for years, with the last reference to it being in 1830, but did not lead to articles of impeachment. Subsequently, Smith practiced law in St. Augustine where he lived with his family at 12 Aviles Street. After his death, the house served for a time as the St. Augustine Free Public Library. It currently houses the research library of the St. Augustine Historical Society. Alexander Darnes, son of slave Violet Pinkney, was born there. Darnes, who would remain enslaved until the end of the American Civil War, would become a celebrated and successful physician, the first Black physician in Florida. Smith and his wife Frances are buried at the Huguenot Cemetery in St. Augustine. Family On August 25, 1806 in Litchfield, Connecticut, Smith married Miss Frances Kirby, daughter of Connecticut politician Ephraim Kirby and his wife, Ruth Marvin Kirby. She died in 1875.