William Stephen Walker was born April 13, 1822 at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania but was raised in Mississippi and Washington, D.C. by his uncle, Secretary of the Treasury and Senator Robert J. Walker, who also was originally from Pennsylvania. He attended a private school in Georgetown, D.C.. Walker volunteered for U.S. Army service in the Mexican–American War and was appointed first lieutenant in the infantry on February 27, 1847. On April 9, 1847, he was assigned to the 1st U.S. Regiment of Voltigeurs and Foot Riflemen, a light infantry regiment. He was regimental adjutant between May 1, 1847 and June 15, 1847. Walker was appointed a brevet captain for his role in the Battle of Chapultepec, September 13, 1847. With the disbanding of the Voltiguer regiment at the end of the war, Walker was discharged on August 31, 1848. Walker returned to the U.S. Army as a captain of the 1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment on March 3, 1855 when the army was expanded during that year.
American Civil War service
William S. Walker resigned from the U.S. Army on May 1, 1861. He had already been appointed a captain in the infantry of the Army of the Confederate States on March 16, 1861 or, according to other versions, was appointed to this position soon after his resignation from the U.S. Army. He was appointed as from Florida. Early in the war, he served as a mustering officer. Walker served as an aide-de-camp to General Robert E. Lee from November 5, 1861 to December 1861. Walker served as assistant inspector general, Department of South Carolina, Georgia and East Florida, December 1861 to March 14, 1862. He was promoted to colonel and assistant inspector general on March 22, 1862. On May 29, 1862, Walker was in immediate command of a force which drove off a Union Army force at the First Battle of Pocotaligo, South Carolina as they tried to expand their bridgehead from Port Royal, South Carolina gained at the Battle of Port Royal, on November 7, 1861. Walker was promoted to brigadier general on October 22, 1862. He was alternately twice in charge of the Third Subdistrict and Fourth Subdistrict of the District of South Carolina. He was in command at Kinston, North Carolina, where he had just gone on April 29, 1864, when he was called to help General P.G.T. Beauregard defend Petersburg, Virginia during the Overland Campaign on May 17, 1864. With the sudden injury of Brigadier General Nathan George Evans, Walker would take command of the "Tramp Brigade" which consisted of the 17th, 18th, 22nd, 23rd, and 26th South Carolina Infantry Regiments, the Holcombe Legion Infantry Regiment and the MacBeth South Carolina Artillery. On May 20, 1864, William Stephen Walker was severely wounded and captured at the Battle of Ware Bottom Church during the Bermuda Hundred Campaign. He was wounded in the left arm and lost his left leg after he led a charge into the Union line and was subjected to a rifle volley after refusing to surrender and then captured. Walker thought he was mortally wounded but was saved by Union surgeon John J. Craven at Fort Monroe, who amputated his leg. He was exchanged on October 29, 1864. Walker served at Weldon, North Carolina from October 29, 1864 to May 1, 1865 and was in command in North Carolina at the end of the war. He was paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina on May 1, 1865.
