Sons of St. Augustine

Sons of St. Augustine. . These statues tell the story of two residents of the Segui Kirby Smith House. Edmund Kirby Smith (right) was born in this house in 1826 and Alexander H. Darnes (left) a slave of the Smith's was born ca. 1846. , E. K. Smith graduated from West Point in 1845 and served in the Mexican War and on the expedition that set the U.S.-Mexican border. Smith served in the 2nd. U.S. Cavalry, primarily in Texas. In 1856 Smith chose Darnes to be his personal servant. When Smith resigned his position and joined the Confederate Army in 1861, Darnes continued to serve in that role. Smith commanded forces in several states, eventually becoming the Commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department. On May 26, 1865 he became the last Confederate full general to surrender. Near the end of the war, Smith sent Darnes, with the general's personal belongings, to Edmund's wife and children in Virginia. , Darnes continued to serve the Smith family as a freedman until 1867. He attended Lincoln University in Pennsylvania earning both a bachelor's and master's degree. He attended Howard University medical school and became a physician in 1880. He moved to Jacksonville and was the first black physician to practice in Florida. Darnes was praised for his work during smallpox and yellow fever epidemics. When he died in 1894, his obituary stated that he was universally esteemed by all who knew him. , After the Civil War, Smith was the Chancellor of the University of Nashville and president of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company. He then became Professor of Mathematics at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and taught there until his death in 1893. , The statues represent the two men in their postwar lives; Darnes with his medical bag and Smith in his academic gown.