(1842 - 1862)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
A worker on his father James' farm in Kiskiminetas Township, Armstrong County, he was probably 19 years old when he enlisted on 8 June 1861. He mustered into service as 2nd Lieutenant, Company G, 11th Pennsylvania Reserves on 29 July in Washington, DC. He was captured in action, date and place not known, and exchanged in August 1862 to return to duty.
On the Campaign
He was in command of his Company when he was killed in action near Turner's Gap on South Mountain, MD on 14 September 1862.
References & notes
His service from Bates1 and the Card File.2 His exchange, for 2nd Lieutenant Cornelius Page, 24th North Carolina Infantry, found in War Department, AGO, General Orders #118 of 27 August 1862. Details from the US Census of 1850 and 1860, and family genealogists. His memorial is on Findagrave, which has his birth year as 1845, and is source also of his picture, from a published photograph of unknown provenance.
Probably named for prominent Pennsylvania politician Walter Forward (1786-1852).
Birth
1842; Apollo, PA
Death
09/14/1862; Turner's Gap, MD
1 Bates, Samuel Penniman, History of the Pennsylvania Volunteers, 1861-65, Harrisburg: State of Pennsylvania, 1868-1871 [AotW citation 22856]
2 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Adjutant-General, Pennsylvania Civil War Veterans' Card File, 1861-1866, Published <2005, first accessed 01 July 2005, <http://www.digitalarchives.state.pa.us/archive.asp?view=ArchiveIndexes&ArchiveID=17> [AotW citation 22857]