Comments on: Sorry, Colonel Rhett, we are not impressed

By: Lew Powell

Lew Powell — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:51:27 +0000

Those two factors aren’t mutually exclusive. Here’s what William C. Davis has to say in “Rhett: The Turbulent Life and Times of a Fire-Eater” (2001):
“Several of [the Smith brothers] had political aspirations now….and even though theirs had the most distinguished of histories in the state, it was still among the most ordinary of names….
“Barnwell Smith [later Robert Barnwell Rhett, "father of secession"] would tell people he was indifferent to the change but acquiesced at the urging of his brothers…. but more probably he was fully aware of the political and social benefit of discarding the Smith surname in favor of one more distinct and distinguished.”

By: Laura Lassiter

Laura Lassiter — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:53:09 +0000

The brothers did not change their names to Rhett because of political asiprations. The Rhett name was assumed to honor their grandmother.

Laura Lassiter
discendant of William Rhett

By: Lew Powell

Lew Powell — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 13:30:28 +0000

Until a surname change effected in 1837 the colonel and his sociopolitically ambitious brothers had been Smiths. On this day in 1865 he may have wished he were again a Smith.