Coupland R. Page, a staff officer of artillery chief William Pendleton, writes about his experience at Gettysburg on 3 July 1863: "General Pendleton sent me again with a message to Col. [E. P.] Alexander, and as I was making my way to through ... a fearful fire of Yankee artillery, I noticed his adjutant flat down behind a big tree ... he had been a school mate of mine before he entered VMI and had graduated with distinction." Page is presumably referring to Thomas Henderson Smith, who was then acting Assistant Adjutant General to E. P. Alexander. Smith graduated from the Virginia Military Institute on 6 December 1861 (ranked 26 out of 35 in his class); he was the son of VMI Superintendent Francis H. Smith, and thus well connected politically. Smith was praised for his conduct at Fredericksburg, but no officer in Robert E. Lee's army could overcome the stigma of cowering behind a tree in combat. Just days after the Gettysburg campaign, Smith requested a transfer and was assigned to the staff of Gen. R. S. Ripley, where to his credit he reportedly performed well at Battery Wagner. Col. Alexander mentions him only briefly in his personal recollections, Fighting for the Confederacy, while at the same time praising his successor, Joseph Haskell. Although nothing derogatory about Smith's conduct was officially recorded, could it be that he was quietly transferred out of the Army of Northern Virginia because of his performance lapse at Gettysburg?