Col. Smith D. Atkins was a young lawyer from Freeport, Illinois and had enlisted as a private two years earlier in Company A, 11th Illinois Infantry and was made Captain of the company and promoted to Major on February 15, 1861. In April 1862 he was promoted to Colonel of the 92nd Illinois Infantry which later became a mounted infantry under Col. Wilder of Indiana. He was a Mason and belonged to Excelsior Lodge 97 AF&AM of Freeport, Stephenson County, Illinois