Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. William Smith, nicknamed Extra Billy (September 6, 1797 May 18, 1887) was a lawyer, congressman, the 30th and 35th Governor of Virginia and one of the oldest Confederate generals in the American Civil War. Smith was born in Marengo, King George County, Virginia. He attended private schools in Virginia and Plainfield Academy in Connecticut. He then studied law and was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Culpeper, Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1818. He established a line of United States mail and passenger post coaches through Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia in 1831. It was in this role that he received his nickname. Given a contract by the administration of President Andrew Jackson to deliver mail between Washington, D.C., and Milledgeville, Georgia (then the state capital), Smith extended it with numerous spur routes, all generating extra fees.