Joseph Lee Smith

His maternal grandfather, Colonel Isaac Lee, Jr. (1717-1802), was a veteran of the American Revolutionary War and was a member of the Connecticut General Assembly in 1776, 1778 to 1781, and 1783 to 1791.

[1] Smith practiced law in Connecticut until the War of 1812 when he became a lieutenant-colonel in the United States Army and served with distinction in combat.

At the Battle of Stoney Creek in Ontario, Canada, on June 7, 1813, his quick thinking and action saved the 25th Infantry Regiment from capture.

[citation needed] After the war, he remained in the Army, rising to the rank of colonel, when he was placed in command of the 3rd Infantry Regiment in 1818.

Ephraim's wife, Mary Isaacs (nee Jerome) Smith, was a second cousin, twice removed of Winston Churchill, and following her husband's death, she married General Amos Beebe Eaton on September 7, 1870.

[4] Smith's son Kirby was born in Florida in 1824, graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1845, and served with his uncle in the Mexican–American War.