To The Confederacy, Before Leaving The Union

Confederate Brigadier General William Stephen Walker resigned his captain’s commission with the 1^st United States Cavalry May 1^st 1861.

William Stephen Walker was born April 13^th 1822 in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.  He was raised by an uncle; Robert J Walker, in Mississippi and Washington, DC, where that uncle served as the Secretary of the Treasury for President James K Polk.  Walker received his education in private schools.  At the start of the Mexican American War he was appointed to First Lieutenant, and assigned to the 1^st United States Voltiguers.  For his action at the Battle of Chapultepec, Walker received a brevet to Captain.  He was discharge from service following the end of the war August 31^st 1848.  Walker returned to military service March 3^rd 1855 becoming a Captain in the 1^st United States Cavalry.

When the Civil War started, Walker resigned his commission with the United States Army on May 1^st 1861, having received a Captaincy in the Confederate Army on March 16^th 1861.  He started as a mustering officer, but by November 5^th 1861 he was serving as the aide-de-camp to General Robert E Lee, and from December 1861 to March 1862 as the inspector general for the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and East Florida.  With a promotion to Colonel he took part in the Battle of Pocotaligo.  Walker was promoted to Brigadier General October 22^nd 1862.  He was wounded in the left arm and the bone in his lower right leg was shattered during the Battle of Ware Bottom Church, a part of the Bermuda Hundred Campaign.  He was captured and taken to Fort Monroe where Union Doctor John J Craven amputated his right foot.  He was exchanged October 29^th 1864.  Walker served out the war at Weldon, North Carolina.  He was paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina May 1^st 1865.

After the war ended Walker moved to Georgia.  He died June 7^th 1899 in Atlanta, Georgia and is buried in the Oakland Cemetery.