Military Service:
Enlisted 14 Apr 1861 at Tiskilwa in Co. I, 12th Illinois Infantry, part of the Union service. When he came home on furlough, he married Mary Estelle Simmons, of Tiskilwa, on 6 Feb 1862. Walter re-enlisted 10 Aug 1862 in Co. D, Seventh Regiment, Kansas Volunteers, Cavalry. He took his bride with him to Corinth, MS, where she acted as nurse for troops in camp there. He was discharged 2 Dec 1864 from St. Louis, MO.