Background

John Walker was born on July 22, 1822, in Jefferson City, Missouri, United States. He was the son of Missouri state treasurer John and Sarah Caffery Walker.

Education

John attended Jesuit College (present-day St. Louis University) in St. Louis during the early 1840s.

Career

John Walker was commissioned as a lieutenant in the United States Army in 1846. Walker was breveted captain in 1847 during his Mexican War service.

He remained in the regular army after the war, serving in the west and southwest before resigning his commission as captain in July 1861. He entered the Confederate Army as a major of cavalry and was promoted to lieutenant colonel and colonel before rising to brigadier general on January 9, 1862. He served under General Theophilus H. Holmes at the battle of Second Manassas and supported Jackson at Harper’s Ferry, after which he was gallant as a division commander during the battle of Sharpsburg.

Following his promotion to major general on November 8, 1862, Walker was transferred to a division command of Texas infantry in the Trans-Mississippi Department. He participated in the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864, and in June of that year, he relieved General Richard Taylor as commander of the District of West Louisiana. At the end of the war, he held a division command in the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Walker refused to surrender, and after the war, he escaped to Mexico and England. He returned to Winchester, Virginia, in the late 1860s, where he was in the mining and railroad business before going to Columbia as United States consul-general at Bogota. Walker was also a commissioner to South America for the PanAmerican convention.

Achievements

• John George Walker is known for his military service which led to his promotion to Major General of the Trans-Mississippi Department where he was given command of 12 Texas regiments, numbering 12,000 men, training at Camp Nelson, Arkansas. He led a division of Texas Infantry in the Red River Campaign in the spring of 1864 and commanded the District of West Louisiana. He directed the District of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona until the end of the war.

Connections

John married Mellissa Smith on July 6, 1856.

Father:

John Walker

1772-1838

Mother:

Sarah Caffery Walker

1781-1849

Sister:

Ann Walker

1802-1861

Sister:

Helen Waller Walker Basye

1811-1889

Sister:

Margaret Courtenay Walker Ralston

1818-1869

Wife:

Mellissa Smith Walker

colleague:

Theophilus Holmes

References

• Civil War High Commands
  2002
• Walker's Texas Division, C.S.A: Greyhounds of the Trans-Mississippi
  2004
• Who Was Who in the Civil War
  1988
• Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders
  2006
• Biographical Dictionary of the Confederacy
  1977