The 8th Missouri Volunteer Infantry (aka the "American Zouaves") was an infantry regiment in the Union army during the American Civil War. Among its early leaders were Morgan Lewis Smith and Giles Alexander Smith, both of whom later became generals. The regiment's first commander was Col. Morgan Lewis Smith, a New Yorker who had moved west to Missouri after serving as an enlisted man in the Regular Army. Under his firm hand, the 8th Missouri would become one of the finest units to serve in the Army of the Tennessee. M. L. Smith's brother, Giles Alexander Smith, also served in the regiment.