Bartow County Georgia Bio William Henry Harrison Walters File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by BEARLYCAROL@aol.com Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/bartow.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm CAPT. WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON WALTERS COMPANY H 18th REGIMENT GEORGIA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON WALTERS was born in Cartersville, Cass [now Bartow] County, Georgia 3 Mar 1841, the son of Sebastian Walters and Phoebe Sosobee. He died, probably between 1910 and 1911, near the town of Rome in Floyd County, Georgia and was buried in the Pisgah Baptist Church Cemetery in Coosa, Floyd County, Georgia. His grave is marked with a Confederate marker inscribed, “Capt. W. H. H. WALTERS, CO. H, 18 GA INF, CSA.” William Henry Harrison Walters was named for the ninth United States President, William Henry Harrison, who was inaugurated 4 Mar 1841, the day after his birth. As a war hero President Harrison was highly regarded by the American people. My great great grandparents were obviously among his admirers since they named their infant son in his honor. Little is known about my great grandfather’s first twenty years other than that in 1850 at age 10 he was a member of his father’s household in Cartersville, Bartow County, Georgia. However, by 1860 when he was age nineteen, he was no longer found in his father’s household, nor was he found elsewhere in the Georgia census of that year. William Henry Harrison Walters grew up on his father’s rented farmland. By own statement in 1895, he too was a farmer. Census records indicate that he, like his father, was not a landowner, and he referred to himself as a “renter” in his 1895 pension request. Although, the census records of 1860 and 1870 indicate his parents and some of his siblings were illiterate, he had obviously received some education since he signed his pay vouchers during his Civil War service and later signed his pension request. He also recorded the names of the first six of my paternal grandparents’ children in the Walters Family Bible. The last entry in his hand was that of the birth of Marguerite Vincent Walters, born 3 Dec 1909. The next birth, that of my father A. V. Walters, Jr. 23 Apr 1912, was written on a separate sheet, the Bible’s page being full, by my grandmother, Della May, W. H. H.’s daughter-in-law. Although the date of his death is unconfirmed, it would appear that he died between the end of 1909 and the spring of 1912. The one indisputable fact about the early life of William Henry Harrison Walters is that from ages 20 to 24 he was a Confederate soldier. Shortly after his twentieth birthday, Georgia seceded from the Union and he joined the regiment being organized by William T. Wofford in Cass County. Georgians soon found themselves embroiled in a bitter four-year struggle for their very survival. The Civil War was to change forever the lives of the southern people, especially those of Northwest Georgia where the Walters family made their home. Northwest Georgia was devastated by four years of war culminating in Sherman’s brutally destructive “March to the Sea.” Official records indicate that William Henry Harrison Walters was officially mustered into the 1st Regiment, 4th Brigade, Georgia State Volunteers on at Camp McDonald on 11/13 June 1861 as a member of the Rowland Highlanders. The Muster Roll of the 18th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer Infantry, DuBose’s Brigade, Kershaw’s Division, Longstreet’s Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, C. S. A. lists the following information concerning W. H. H. Walters’s Civil War service: “Waters (sic), W. H. H. - Private - June 13, 1861.” It is noted, however, that the enlistment date for Company H, Bartow County, “Rowland Infantry, is also given as June 11, 1861. The entry continues, “Pension records show he was injured while on detail at Sharpsburg, Maryland September 19, 1862. Appointed 1st Sergeant March 1, 1864. Elected Jr. 2nd Lieutenant October 12, 1864. Appears without remark as to presence or absence on roll dated January 31, 1865. No later record. Born in Georgia, Mar. 3, 1941.” Company Muster Rolls reveal that W. H. H. Walters enlisted 13 Jun 1861 at Camp McDonald, from Cass County, Georgia for a period of three years. Extant company pay records indicate he received payment for his military service on 1 Jul 1861, 3 Aug 1861, 2 Oct 1861, 1 Nov 1861, 1 Jan 1862, 1 Jul 1862, 1 Feb 1864, 1 May 1864, 1 Jul 1864. With few exceptions, there is no evidence of the amount of payment received. However, according to the pay register for Company H, 18th Georgia Regiment, Sgt. W. H. Walters received $68 on 29 Feb 1864 for the period from 1 Nov 1863 to 29 Feb 1864, while the Officer’s Pay Account for his company recorded a payment of $210.60 to 2nd Lieutenant W. W. H. Walters on 5 Dec 1864. The first record covered four months’ service for which he received $27 per month as a sergeant; however, there is no indication of the time period covered by the latter record and thus no way to determine his pay scale as a 2nd lieutenant. A copy of an inspection report for Kershaw’s Division, Longstreet’s Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, Commanded by Maj. Gen. J. B. Kershaw dated 29 Jan 1865 near Richmond and signed by A. S. Andrews gave the following information to account for absent commissioned officer W. H. Walters, Lieut, 18 Regt., Ga., “Absent without leave. Send (sic) to be Aid de Camp to Gen’l Wofford. Two days later the inspection report regarding Lt. Walters read, “Send (sic) to be Aide de Camp to Gen’l Wofford. Absent without leave.” The following month on 27 Feb 1865 the inspection report concerning Lt. W. H. H. Walters read “Absent without leave. Reported that he is on Genl (sic) Woffords (sic) Staff. P.O. Atlanta.” The last accounting of his absence given 28 Feb 1865 simply states, “Reported to be on Genl (sic) Woffords (sic) Staff in Georgia.” What is remarkable about this last accounting is that his rank on 28 Feb is given as captain, not lieutenant. In late January 1865 Walters’ commanding officer General William T. Wofford received permission to return to North Georgia to organize the men of the area, some of whom had deserted to take care of their families after Sherman’s March to the Sea. Taking with him a number of the officers who were from North Georgia, he left Richmond 23 Jan 1865 for the purpose of protecting and feeding those left defenseless and impoverished by the war. Although company records describe him as absent without leave, they also indicate that W.H.H. Walters was one of those who accompanied Wofford to North Georgia where he is said to have served as Wofford’s Aide de Camp until their surrender 12 May 1865 at Kingston, Georgia. According to family legend, during the war W. H. H. Walters was involved in a plot to assassinate United States President Abraham Lincoln. The story, as told by his daughter Anna Lee Walters Haley, is that he overheard Lincoln boast about destroying the South and starving its people and took an oath with some others to kill Lincoln. According to her account, she had heard this tale from her father who said Flora somehow learned of the planned assassination and talked him and his friends out of it. This tale makes for an interesting family legend, but there is no way to determine its veracity. Another family story pertains to action during the Maryland Campaign of September 1862. W. H. H. is purported to have told of an incident not long before the battle at Sharpsburg when a Yankee sharpshooter picked off one of the men who had slept in the same tent with him during the previous night. According to his niece, Allie Walters Avery, Walters crawled from the rear of the tent, circled around and killed the Yankee sharpshooter with his “horse pistol.” Allie’s father, W.H.H.’s younger brother Lindsay Johnson Walters who was a mere lad during the war, recalled traveling with his by wagon to Chickamauga after hearing of the battle there to search for his brothers William and Noah. No one in the family today recalls if they located either. When he returned from the war, William Henry Harrison Walters married Bartow County, Georgia native Flora Eugene Vincent, daughter of James D. Vincent and Lucinda Jenkins. Flora and her sister Lucinda, having been orphaned as children, were reared in Pine Log, Cass/Bartow County, Georgia by their paternal grandmother, Susan Elizabeth Edwards Vincent, widow of Pleasant Hart Vincent and one of Pine Log’s early pioneer settlers. Flora was no more than fifteen or sixteen years old at the time of their marriage in July 1865, shortly after William’s return from the war. The following month, Aug 1865, W. H. Walters and Mrs. W. H. (Flora) Walters, as well as W.H.H.’s mother Pheobe and sister Mary, were added to the membership roll of Wofford’s Crossroads Baptist Church, near White, Bartow County, Georgia. William Henry Harrison Walters and Flora Eugene Vincent were the parents of nine children: Susan Alice, born 1867; Thomas Jefferson “Tom”, born 1869; Lucinda, born 1874; Alcy Vincent Walters, born 22 July 1877; Chesley Bostic “Chett,” born 1879; Eula Mae, born 4 June 1887; Anna Lee, born 9 May 1890; Emmett, born 1893; and Eugene Harrison “Gene,” born 1895. Their first children Susan Alice and Thomas Jefferson were born in Georgia; however, sometime after Tom’s birth in 1869 the family set out for Texas. Daughter Lucinda was born along the way in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is unclear where they were headed in Texas, how long they might have stayed, or why they returned to Georgia, but the family was back in Georgia in 1877 when my grandfather Alcy Vincent was born in Calhoun, Gordon County. Little is known about the life of W. H. H. and Flora Walters after they settled in Calhoun. For the next thirty years he most likely farmed rented land in various Gordon County locations, including Calhoun and Resaca. On 11 Apr 1895 W. H. H. Walters applied to the state of Georgia to “participate in the benefits of the act approved October 24th, 1887, and the acts amendatory thereof…” According to his deposition, W. H. H. Walters stated under oath that he was a “bonafide citizen and resident of Georgia, and has been continuously since the (3) third day of March 1841; That he enlisted in the military service of the Confederate States (or the State of Georgia) during the war between the States, and served as a Lieutenant in Company (H) of 18th regiment of Georgia Volunteers (WOFFORDS BRIGADE) that whilst engaged in such military service, at the (sic) (battle of SHARPSBURG) in the state of MARYLAND, on the 19th day of September 1862, he was disabled as follows: while on a special detale (sic) to roll wagons up the river bank, as the army came out of Maryland, while straining at a wheel he was ruptured and has continually grown worse since. the (sic) bank was very steep and the enemy a pressing on and while straining he was ruptured as states above.” The deposition continues, “it (sic) has got so bad now that a truss will not hold his bowels in place and in walking (sic) has to hold his intestines in place with his hands. He is a farmer and a renter and unable to work and has been (last four words unreadable).” Pension records show that at 54 years of age he was totally disabled, and he received a disability pension of $50.00 per year from the State of Georgia for Civil War Service. Some 2½ years after requesting the pension from the state of Georgia for disabilities resulting from his Civil War service, his wife of thirty-two years died. Flora Vincent Walters died of unknown causes 16 Nov 1897 in Calhoun, Gordon County, Georgia, leaving behind a grief stricken family with children ranging in age from 2 to 30. According to her then sixteen- year-old son Chesley Bostick “Chett” Walters, Flora was buried in an unmarked grave at Wofford’s Crossroads Baptist Church in White, Bartow County, Georgia, north of Cartersville. Her children recalled that after their mother’s death the younger children went to live with and were reared by older siblings. William Henry Harrison Walters lived at least another thirteen years after the death of his wife Flora. In that time his grandchildren say he married a second time, a woman they remember only as “Miss Tara.” One clue that gives some insight into the time frame of W. H. H.’s second marriage can be gleaned from Chett Walters’ reminiscences with his own grandson Kenneth E. Walters about the death of the elder’s mother. Chett recalled that W. H. H.’s second wife was a schoolteacher and not a woman of whom he was particularly fond. After his father’s marriage to “Miss Tara,” Chett went to live with his sister Alice and her husband Bob Porch. Based on Chett’s age at the time of his mother’s death coupled with the fact that his father was left with a houseful of younger children, one would assume that the second marriage took place fairly soon after Flora’s death. Another daughter, Anna Lee, married in 1903 at age 13, possibly another child fleeing the disliked stepmother. However, what happened to their stepmother, “Miss Tara,” remains a mystery. Unable to farm and maintain his own home, in his later years William Henry Harrison Walters visited with first one and then another of his children and their families and with other family members as well. Hattie Mae Walters was only an infant when Grandpa Walters died, but she remembers her mother telling her about Grandpa’s habit of disappearing at mealtime when he had visited with them on their farm near Henegar, Alabama. This is a trait he apparently passed on to his son Alcy. Grandpa Walters also spent some time visiting his son Alcy’s family in Bessemer, Alabama. Whoever his second wife was, she was apparently not present during his later years when he was visiting with his children as none of their children remembered her. At the time of his death in either 1910 or 1911, William Henry Harrison WALTERS was visiting his younger brother Lindsay Johnson Walters at his home near Rome, Floyd County, Georgia. Lindsay’s home is said to have been located near Walker’s Crossing, also called Five Mile. According to Pat Avery, great grandson of Lindsay Walters, Walker’s Crossing was an area located at what is now the crossing of Huffacre Road and the Central of Georgia Rail Road and is located near the back entrance (a field entrance) to Berry College. His cause of death, though not known for sure, is believed to have been dysentery. He was buried four miles west of Rome at the Pisgah Baptist Church Cemetery on Highway 20 in Coosa, Floyd County, Georgia. His grave is located in the third row near the church and marked with an upright memorial provided by the government upon the request of his brother Lindsay sometime between 1920 and 1930. The grave marker is inscribed CAPT. WILLIAM H. H. WALTERS, Co. H., 18 Ga. Inf., C. S. A. It does not give either birth or death dates. While their roots were in Bartow and Gordon counties, the children of William Henry Harrison and Flora Walters moved far a field. Susan Alice Walters married Robert “Bob” Porch. Thomas Jefferson “Tom” Walters may have gone to Texas. Lucinda “Lou” Walters married Fitchue Timms and lived in Calhoun, Georgia. Alcy Vincent Walters married Della Mae Higginbotham, daughter of Louis Sanford Higginbotham and Sallie Miller of Sugar Valley in Gordon County, Georgia. Alcy and Della were the parents of ten children born between 1899 and 1921. The first of their children, a daughter Fairis Eugene, was born before the young couple migrated to Jefferson County, Alabama in search of work in the booming iron and steel industry of that region. Their second child, a son Harlin Troy, was born in Alabama as were their other children, sons Elwyn “Ebb” Ballard and A. V., Jr. and daughters Sarah Mae, Louise Lynn “Leek”, Marguerite Vincent “Mog”, Lois Conwell, Emily Maurene and Psyche Rebecca. Chesley Bostic “Chett” Walters married Emma Eldora Thomas. They were the parents of four children. The first three, Julian Vincent, Hattie Mae, and Joseph Maxwell, were born in Georgia, while the fourth, Eugene Lynn was born after the family had migrated to Alabama where Chett had purchased a farm in DeKalb County near Henegar. After their children were grown and had left home, he sold the farm and moved to north Georgia, nearer his children who were then living and working in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. Eula Mae Walters married Richard Seaburn “Dick” Blackstock, a native of the Sugar Valley. Eula and her husband also migrated to Bessemer in Jefferson County, Alabama where they lived until their deaths. Anna Lee Walters married Benjamin Franklin “Ben” Haley Though most of their married life was spent in the Atlanta area, for a time they resided in Florida. Emmett Walters married Sallie Kennedy. Emmett and Sallie were the parents of three children: Thelma, Ida, and Henry, an adopted son. Emmett and his family moved to Texas. Eugene Harrison “Gene” Walters married Matilda Overcarsh. They were the parents of a daughter Betty Jean and lived in Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina where he was employed by Schriff Candy Company. ======================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for FREE access. ==============