SMITH, Richard Somers, educator, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 October, 1813; died in Annapolis, Maryland, 23 January, 1877. He was graduated at the United States military academy in 1834, but resigned from the army in 1836, was assistant engineer of the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad company in 1836-'7, of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal in 1839-'40, and projected several other important railroads. He was reappointed in the United States army in the latter year with the rank of 2d lieutenant, was assistant mid afterward full professor of drawing at the United States military academy in 1846-'52, and was then transferred to the 4th artillery, becoming quartermaster and treasurer, but in 1856 he again resigned. He was professor of mathematics, engineering, and drawing in Brooklyn collegiate and polytechnic institute in 1855-'9, director of Cooper institute, New York city, for two years, was reappointed in the army as major of the 12th United States infantry in 1S61, and served as mustering and disbursing officer in Maryland and Wisconsin in 1861-'2. He then took part in the Rappahannock campaign with the Army of the Potomac, participating in the battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia, 2-4 May, 1868. He resigned in the same month to become president of Girard college, Pennsylvania, which post he held till 1868. For the next two years he was professor of engineering in the Polytechnic college of Pennsylvania, and from 1870 till his death he was at the head of the department of drawing at the United States naval academy. Columbia gave him the degree of A.M. in 1857. He published a " Manual of Topographical Drawing" (Philadelphia, 1854), and a work on "Linear Perspective Drawing" (1857).