FRANCIS AMASA WALKER. 3-45 



General Couch. From that time he was upon duty with the Army of the 

 Potomac, serving with advancing rank upon the staff of Generals Warren 

 and Hancock through some of the severest campaigns of the war. He 

 resigned his commission in January, 18G5, from illness contracted while 

 a prisoner within the Confederate lines, received the brevet rank of 

 Brigadier General " for distinguished service and good conduct," and re- 

 turned to civil life bearing the honorable scars of the brave. It after- 

 wards fell to his lot, in his " History of the Second Army Corps" (188G), 

 and his ''Life of General Hancock" (1894), to write the narrative of 

 events no small part of which had passed before his eyes. Little of 

 his own history is to be found in those glowing pages, but every line bears 

 witness to the intense enthusiasm with which he never failed to kindle 

 when he recalled his army life, and to his devotion to the great captains 

 under whom he served. 



Like many other young men, who, as soldiers in the "War for the Union, 

 drank the wine of life early. General Walker came home with his charac- 

 ter matured, his capacities developed, his intellectual forces aroused and 

 trained, — a man older than his years. The career in which he was to 

 win new distinction did not open for him at once upon the sudden return 

 of peace. For three years he was a teacher of the classics in "Williston 

 Seminary, and in 1868, being compelled by an attack of quinsy to seek a 

 change of occupation, he became an assistant of Mr. Samuel Bowles, 

 editor of the Springfield Republican. From this place he was drawn 

 into the public service at "Washington, by the agency of Mr. David A. 

 Wells, who was then Special Commissioner of the Revenue, and in search 

 of a new Chief for the Bureau of Statistics. The work of the Bureau had 

 fallen into some discredit, and was far in arrears, and the inability of the 

 former Chief of the Bureau to command the confidence of Congress seri- 

 ously embarrassed the continuance of an important work. By Mr. Wells's 

 advice General Walker was made Deputy Special Commissioner and 

 placed in charge of the Bureau, and a new career was at once opened 

 before him, for which he was fitted in a peculiar manner both by his 

 intellectual interests and his administrative capacity. The Bureau was 

 reorganized and its reputation was regained. The monthly publications 

 were resumed, and soon showed that progressive improvement which has 

 made them one of the most valuable repositories in existence for the 

 study of the commercial and financial activity of a great country. 



From his appointment to the charge of the Bureau of Statistics 

 the steps in General Walker's new career followed in rapid succession. 

 In 1870 he was appointed Superintendent of the Ninth Census of the 



