How William Scott Became the Sleeping Sentinel - Baldy Smith

At Chain Bridge, the newly mustered Vermont regiment would be joined by its new colonel, William Smith, known popularly as 'Baldy' Smith because of a thinning hair spot in the back of his head.

Smith came from a wealthy family in St. Albans, Vermont and was a West Point graduate. As a close friend of George McClellan, the commanding general of the union army, Smith was able to form a brigade entirely of Vermonters. A brigade formed from the same state was against army policies during the war. The policy came from the belief that if a same-state brigade lost heavily in battle, the host state would lose its taste for the war effort.

Under Smith's command then, William Scott spent August in preparation for the planned march southward against the Confederacy.

Within a few weeks of arriving at Camp Lyon, Scott's regiment, 3rd Vermont, Company K, would be joined by second Vermont, the thirty-third New York and the Sixth Maine.