Thomas John Walton

After graduating from the University of Mississippi in 1854, he sought a seat at the US Military Academy at West Point, but was not appointed. He then attended law school and afterward practiced in Vicksburg and, by 1859, at Tallula in Issaquena County, MS.

He was a Volunteer aide-de-camp to General Clark from 24 May 1861, then to General Longstreet (his wife's uncle) at First Manassas in July. He was commissioned Lieutenant and ADC 31 December 1861, but then "withdrawn." He was appointed Captain and Assistant Commissary on General Longstreet's staff on 27 May 1862, was wounded in acton at Seven Pines, VA in June, and promoted to Major 11 July to date from 27 May 1862.

From General Longstreet's Report:

To my staff officers-Maj. G. M. Sorrel, assistant adjutant-general, who was wounded at Sharpsburg; Lieut. Col. P. T. Manning, chief of ordnance; Maj. J. W. Fairfax; Maj. Thomas Walton, who was also wounded at Sharpsburg; Capt. Thomas J. Goree and Lieut. R. W. Blackwell--I am under renewed and lasting obligations. These officers, full of courage, intelligence, patience, and experience, were able to give directions to commands such as they thought proper, which were at once approved and commanded my admiration.

He was out of commission due to a technicality on 31 July 1863, but continued to serve, at corps headquarters reviewing court-martial records. He was acting Judge Advocate to First Corps in the spring and summer of 1864. He was assigned as Assistant Adjutant General to General Ewell on 4 November 1864, and to General Taylor on 14 March 1865. He was paroled on 4 May 1865.

He took his law practice to Sunflower County, MS. On 18 November 1866 he killed Harold Bellamy, late Captain, 48th Mississippi Infantry in an impromptu duel near Bolivar, MS. He was himself seriously wounded in the shoulder and fled the state, briefly practicing law in New Orleans. He returned to Mississippi by 1871 was appointed professor of law at his alma mater in August of that year. He taught there into 1875, was appointed US Attorney for northern Mississippi in May 1876, and ran unsuccessfully for the US Congress in 1876 as a Republican. He "distinguished himself" during a yellow fever outbreak at Grenada, MS, but died there of the fever in August 1878.

His service from Krick.1 Personal details from Alexander M. Heideman in Dangerous Subjects in Every Sense: Violence and Politics at the Law Department of the University of Mississippi [pdf] in the Mississippi Law Journal, Volume 89, Issue 3 (2020).

c. 1834 in MS

08/1878; Grenada, MS