Edward Parmelee Smith (1827–1876) was a Congregational minister in Massachusetts before becoming Field Secretary for the United States Christian Commission during the American Civil War.
In official positions with the American Missionary Association (AMA), he was a co-founder of Fisk University and other historically black colleges established in the South for the education of freedmen.
During the American Civil War he expanded his religious work among soldiers as part of the United States Christian Commission.
[2] After the war, Smith was recruited for the American Missionary Association, which was working to found schools for freedmen throughout the South, as education was one of the critical needs.
Smith was appointed a General Field Agent, headquartered in New York, but with charge for its work in the southern states.
He was then elected to the presidency of Howard University, one of the historically black colleges jointly founded by the AMA and the Freedmen's Bureau.