Background
Walter was born on August 24, 1827 at Penn Yan, New York, United States, the son of Samuel Stevens.
Walter was born on August 24, 1827 at Penn Yan, New York, United States, the son of Samuel Stevens.
He entered West Point as a cadet in 1844, graduated in 1848, fourth in his class, and was commissioned in the corps of engineers.
Practically all of his service in corps of engineers was in Louisiana and Texas, where he did some engineering work upon rivers and harbors, acted as lighthouse inspector for four years, and supervised the construction and repair of fortifications at Galveston and New Orleans.
He was promoted first lieutenant in 1855. His life in the South and his marriage to a resident of Louisiana had made him entirely southern in sentiment, and after Texas passed the ordinance of secession he accordingly sent in his resignation from the army, March 2, 1861.
Without waiting for it to be forwarded to Washington, he offered his services to Texas and assisted in preparation for the war. The War Department accordingly withheld action on the resignation, and eventually he was dismissed, May 2, 1861, on the technical ground of failure to render his accounts. Meanwhile he had been appointed a captain of engineers in the Confederate army, accredited to the state of Texas.
He served on the staff of General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard at the battle of Bull Run, and was then promoted major and assigned to duty as chief engineer of the Army of Northern Virginia, continuing in the field with it during the Peninsular campaign.
When Lee succeeded Johnston in the command of the army, Stevens, now a colonel, was put in charge of the defenses of Richmond. These resembled field works rather than a fortress, being constructed on a much more modest scale than the contemporary fortifications of Washington, but they were of value in releasing troops for service at the front and proved of some direct use in checking the Kilpatrick-Dahlgren cavalry raid in 1864.
Stevens was appointed brigadier-general with rank from August 28, 1864, and again became chief engineer of the Army of Northern Virginia, with which he served until the surrender. The defensive lines before Petersburg were constructed under his direction. It is said that on the evacuation of Richmond he turned back into the flames of the burning bridge over which the troops were marching in order that he might be the last soldier to leave the city he had defended so long.
Paroled at Appomattox, he went to Mexico, apparently intending to make it his permanent home, and became superintendent and constructing engineer of a railroad between Vera Cruz and the city of Mexico.
He died on November 12, 1867 at Vera Cruz.
He was married to a resident of Louisiana.
