Leonidas R. Smith was an American steamboat captain and soldier. In the American Civil War he served the Confederate States of America as a volunteer; he was named Commander of the Texas Marine Department under General John B. Magruder. Smith was involved in most major conflicts along the Texas coast during the war, and was described by war-time governor of Texas Francis Lubbock as "undoubtedly the ablest Confederate naval commander in the Gulf waters".

John Bankhead Magruder was an American and Confederate military officer. A graduate of West Point, Magruder served with distinction during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As a major general, he received recognition for delaying the advance of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's large force, the Army of the Potomac, during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, as well as recapturing Galveston, Texas the following year.