FRANCIS AMASA WALKER. 637 



generation from Capt. Eichard Walker, of Lynn, a man active in the 

 church and in the town, a member of the Honourable Artillery Com- 

 pany of London, and one of the first members of the Ancient and Hon- 

 orable Artillery Company of Boston. The Walkers in every generation 

 were good farmers and soldiers and important men in the town. His 

 great grandfather, Phineas Walker, who moved to Worcester County, 

 and built a house on land where his descendants now dwell, served in 

 the old French war under Wolfe; was a captain in the Eevolution, and 

 was at the taking of Ticonderoga with Ethan Allen. His grandfather, 

 Deacon Walter Walker, a blacksmith and farmer, moved to North 

 Brookfleld in 1800. There his children were born. He was the i)rin- 

 cipal citizen of the town. His wife, Priscilla Carpenter, originally 

 spelled Charpentier, was of French Huguenot descent. General Walker 

 was of Huguenot descent on his mother's side likewise. This is a strain 

 of which we have many delightful exami)les. The character and quality 

 of our l!^ew England women do not often get into the town records. 

 But it is noticeable that so far as we have accounts, certainly for three 

 generations, the women from whom he descended were remarkable for 

 intellectual vigor and great public spirit. General Walker told the 

 story at the Commercial Club of his going home unexpectedly on leave 

 of absence at the darkest time of the war, in the fall of 1862, when 

 almost every household in Massachusetts was in mourning, and officers 

 were resigning, and desertions frequent. He came into the house unseen 

 early in the morning, and found his mother with an open Bible in her 

 lap — not reading, but with her gaze fixed toward the south, thinking of 

 her absent sons. 



"Instead of the glad welcome I had expected came the quick, sharp 

 question, 'You haven't left the Army, have you?'" His mother was 

 one of a family of four sisters, all women of commanding presence and 

 character, having, as Mr. Spencer, the North Brookfield pastor, says, 

 "an intense regard for righteousness." * * * 



He began to study Latin when he was 7 years old. He fitted for col- 

 lege at Leicester Academy and at Lancaster. He was graduated from 

 Amherst at 20, where he got two prizes for extemj)ore speaking. He 

 studied law in Worcester. 



He enlisted as a private in the Fifteenth Massachusetts Volunteers, 

 a regiment never excelled on the face of the earth for soldierly quality. 

 Soon after his enlistment he was made sergeant-major. Very soon he 

 was commissioned as captain and assistant adjutant-general. He was 

 promoted to be major, then to be lieutenant-colonel, then brevetted 

 general. He served on Couch's staff and Warren's, and was chief upon 

 Hancock's. Two of his promotions were for gallant conduct on the field. 

 His name receives honorable mention in the reports of many battles, 

 including Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, Fredericksburg, 

 Chancellors ville, Bristow Station, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Peters- 

 burg, and Eeams Station. He was severely wounded at Chancellors- 

 ville. General Couch reported that at Fair Oaks he "made a daring 



