Background
Waterhouse was born in Rhea County, Tennessee.
Waterhouse was born in Rhea County, Tennessee.
As a teenager, he ran away from home to fight in the Mexican–American War. There he engaged in the mercantile business until the outbreak of the American Civil War. During the Civil War, he helped to raise the Nineteenth Texas Infantry in and around Jefferson and was elected colonel of the unit on May 13, 1862.
He served under Thomas C. Hindman and Theophilus H. Holmes in Arkansas and under Richard Taylor in Louisiana.
General East. Kirby Smith, who was commanding the Transport-Mississippi Department, was impressed with Waterhouse and he appointed Waterhouse Brigadier General to rank from April 30, 1864. The promotion was not confirmed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis until March 17, 1865 and by the Confederate Senate until the 18th, the last day the legislators were in session before the government collapsed.
After the war, Waterhouse lived in San Antonio and in Jefferson, Texas, where he speculated in land. He fell down a flight of stairs in a Waco hotel on March 18, 1876.
This resulted in a severe case of pneumonia that resulted in his death only two days later on March 20.
He is buried in Jefferson, Texas.