Known CSA Veterans at Cedar Hill
Vicksburg, Mississippi
 

Not Forgotten
 

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Photo by Bryan Skipworth

William Thomas Walthall
1820 - 1898
Anna Worcester Dorr Walthall
1834 - 1923

In Thy Presence Is Fullness Of Joy

 

 

Major William Thomas Walthall was born in Virginia in 1820. The family migrated to Alabama while he was a youngster.

Before the war he worked as a newspaper man. When the Civil War descended upon the South, Major Walthall immediately became a member of the Confederate Army.

He enrolled 8 Jun 1861 in the 12 Reg Ala Inf Vols. and was voted the rank of Captain. An appointment dated the same day promoted him to acting adjutant general.

 

 

 

 

See his record
https://www.fold3.com/image/8146312

 

Capt. Walthall, as acting adjutant quartermaster, receives and signs for twenty-nine hundred dollars
 to be used by recruiting officers to pay bounty.

 

 

 

 




W. T. Walthall, Capt. Co. I, 12 Ala. Reg, signs a Special Requisition No. 40 "For 40 Blankets" and notes at the
bottom the reason as seen here, "the loss of the blankets in the recent movements of the army." The requisition was received and approved at Richmond on 23 Apr 1862 by J. B. McClelland.

 

After the surrender, Major Walthall accepted employment with the “Mobile Register” newspaper as the editorial writer. He remained there for seven years.

In 1873, he was recruited to move to Beauvoir and assist Jefferson Davis with his writings, including the “Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government.” In 1878, he was in Memphis and as a member of the Howard Society was very heavily involved in the horrible Yellow Fever Epidemic.

Some where along the way he met and married Miss Dorr of Vicksburg. This marriage produced at least two children.

In 1887 he gave a tour of lectures across the South to raise money to purchase a monument in Mobile for Admiral Semmes. The title of the lecture was “The Sword of the Sea.” He spoke in Vicksburg in November, two nights at the Opera House and was held over for a third night at Magnolia Hall. The cost of a ticket was fifty cents per person.
 

On June 01st, 1888, President Grover Cleveland appointed him as Minister to British Guanine. After this tour of duty, he and his family returned to Vicksburg.

Major Walthall died in 1899, and was buried in his wife’s family plot in Cedar Hill (Vicksburg City Cemetery). Dr. Samsome, an old friend, preached his funeral at Christ Episcopal Church. The Pall Bearers; Captain D A Campbell, General E S Butts, Dr. J B Askew, Major Coleman, Captain Worrell, Henry Yoste, A Warner & Dr. J D Mimms, were all Confederate veterans. Also, perhaps of interest, Confederate veteran Captain M W Hughes suffered a stroke during the Funeral Service, and died a few months later.

Atop Major Walthall’s coffin were placed the Cap and Sword he wore and carried as a Confederate officer and the plain lamb skin apron of a Master Mason. Frederick Speed, a Past Grand Master, Yankee captain, and businessman of Vicksburg, conducted the Masonic services.

 


Thanks to Bryan Skipworth for this photograph and article.

 

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