JOSEPH FONES SMITH -- 118th and 142nd INFANTRYFARMER FROM HORICON - Joseph Fones Smith enlisted in the 118thInfantry on July 21, 1862, under his middle name of Fones. He was adescendant of early Rhode Island settlers who had migrated throughsouthern New York to settle in Warren County. He married Rheuma Pratt in1856 and by the time he left for war, his father, Joseph Smith had diedand so had his first child, Josephine.Joseph or Fones was with the 118th until October 1863, when he wastransferred to the Veterans Reserve Corps while they were encamped atPortsmouth, VA.He must have recovered sufficiently to be able to join the 142ndInfantry in Plattsburgh in September 1864 for a bounty of \$900. Dozensof men were sent with him to join the regiment while they were beforePetersburg. They joined the regiment from the recruit depot on October14th and their first battle was on October 27th at Darbytown Roadwhere the regiment had 103 casualties.In December, the 142nd was ordered to Fort Fisher on the NorthCarolina coast, and in two assaults on the fort, they received 99 morecasualties. Several more minor engagements followed before they joinedthe Campaign of the Carolinas and they were at the Bennett House onApril 26th when General Johnston surrendered to General Sherman.Joseph was mustered out a few miles to the east of the Bennet Place atRaleigh, NC, on June 7, 1865.He went back to Horicon, NY, where he was born in 1837, and farmed therefor the rest of his life. He was married three times and had thirteenchildren before he died in Horicon in 1902. His third wife, Louisa,received her Widow's Pension in September of that year.Joseph missed the thirty-seventh annual encampment of the Grand Army ofthe Republic of which he had been a member. His name is listed in TheGrand Army of the Republic Abstract of General Orders and Proceedings ofthe 1903 encampment. He is listed in the Mortuary Table of severalhundred men who had died since the last time they met. It shows he wasmustered into the G. A. R. on September 13, 1884 and died on July 29,1902.
