[1] At first Smith was an assistant instructor at the VMI, but he was admitted to the bar in 1855 and practiced law in Glenville, Virginia until he journeyed into the west and settled in the Washington Territory.

In 1861 Smith entered the Confederate States Army on June 11 as a Private in the Pendleton Rifles, which became Company E of the 25th Virginia Infantry.

After recovering in late 1862 Smith was ordered by the War Department to take several hundred newly exchanged soldiers to Colonel John D. Imboden for service in western Virginia, and was offered the command of them.

When General Imboden was struck with typhoid fever, Smith took command of the brigade on July 5 and reassumed it several times till the end of the war.

Their law practice was confined chiefly to real estate transactions and they made their fortunes in the large partition suits.

This law firm acquired and developed the land which ultimately became the city of Orange, California.

In 1869, Henry Smith came to Los Angeles, practiced law; and was a Superior Court Judge 1883 - 1884.