William Henry Talbot Walker was born in Augusta, Ga. , a descendant of a family which had moved to that state from Charles City County, Va. , in the late eighteenth century. His father, Freeman Walker, was the first mayor of Augusta and a senator from Georgia; his mother was Mary Washington (Creswell) of Wilkes County, Ga. , a niece of Gov. Matthew Talbot of Georgia.
After attending school in Augusta, William entered the United States Military Academy and was graduated in 1837, number forty-six in a class of fifty.
He was commissioned second lieutenant of the 6th Infantry and before the end of the year saw active service in the Florida Indian War. At the battle of Okeechobee, December 25, 1837, he was thrice severely wounded and was brevetted first lieutenant for gallant conduct. On October 31, 1838, he resigned from the army, but was reappointed November 18, 1840, and rejoined his regiment, serving through the Florida war. On November 7, 1845, he was promoted captain. He then served in the Mexican War and was brevetted major, August 20, 1847, for heroic conduct at Contreras, and lieutenant-colonel, September 8, 1847, for similar gallantry at Molino del Rey. In the latter battle he was desperately wounded and for a long time it was feared that he would die. The state of Georgia presented him with a sword of honor in 1849. After the Mexican War, he was on sick leave and recruiting service from 1847 to 1852, and deputy governor of the military asylum at East Pascagoula, Miss. , from 1852 to 1854. In the latter year he became commandant of cadets and instructor in military tactics at West Point, serving as such until 1856, and being promoted in 1855 to major. For a brief time he was on frontier duty in Minnesota, and then on sick leave until 1860. Though Walker sincerely regretted the conflict between the North and the South, he resigned his commission in the United States Army December 20, 1860. One of the most experienced officers who entered the Confederate service, he would probably have attained greater fame had he not been in such poor physical condition. He was appointed major-general of Georgia volunteers on April 25, 1861, and on May 25 was made brigadier-general in the Confederate army. During the next five months he served at Pensacola, Fla. , and as a brigade commander in northern Virginia. On October 29, 1861, he resigned his commission, ostensibly because of ill-health, and unquestionably he had been reported as sick in Richmond two months before. Nevertheless, in November he was appointed major-general of Georgia state troops and Gen. Alexander R. Lawton, Confederate commander at Savannah, wrote Secretary of War Benjamin, "that the feelings with which he [Walker] has now left the Confederate service, fomented by the temper which Governor Brown has (in the past at least) exhibited toward the War Department, might cause great embarrassment here, if he is permitted to assume command under state authority". Walker reëntered the Confederate service on March 2, 1863, as a brigadier-general. On May 18, Gen. J. E. Johnston reported to Jefferson Davis that Walker was the only officer in his western command competent to head a division, and obtained his appointment, January 25, 1864, as major-general. He commanded a division in Mississippi, and after the fall of Vicksburg was ordered to Georgia in time for the battle of Chickamauga. In this battle he was in command of the reserves. Later, in his official report, he criticized Gen. D. H. Hill for disintegrating the reserves in their attack and declared that if he could have made his own dispositions he felt "satisfied that the enemy's left would have been carried much easier than it was, and many a gallant man been saved, and his retreat intercepted". Walker served with the Army of Tennessee during the campaign in northern Georgia. He was killed in a sortie from Atlanta while in front of his division and his body left in the Union lines. It was later recovered, however, and interred in the old family burial ground at Summerville, Ga. , now a part of Augusta.
He was a career United States Army officer who fought with distinction during the Mexican-American War, and also served as a Confederate general during the American Civil War. A bronze bust of Walker was dedicated in 1916, made by American sculptor Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, and is located at Vicksburg National Military Park.
He married Mary Townsend of Albany, N. Y. , and had two sons and two daughters.
