page_title: Francis Amasa Walker
section_title: Second Army Corps
hierarchical_section_title: Francis Amasa Walker / Military service / Second Army Corps
caption_attribution_description: English: Francis Amasa Walker in the Civil War, from Captured! The Civil War experience of the Superintendent of the Census Francis Amasa Walker by Jason G. Gauthier, Historian, Public Information Office, U.S. Census Bureau
context_page_description: Francis Amasa Walker was an American economist, statistician, journalist, educator, academic administrator, and military officer in the Union Army.
  Walker was born into a prominent Boston family, the son of the economist and politician Amasa Walker, and he graduated from Amherst College at the age of 20. He received a commission to join the 15th Massachusetts Infantry and quickly rose through the ranks as an assistant adjutant general. Walker fought in the Peninsula Campaign and was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville but subsequently participated in the Bristoe, Overland, and Richmond-Petersburg Campaigns before being captured by Confederate forces and held at the infamous Libby Prison. In July 1866, he was nominated by President Andrew Johnson and confirmed by the United States Senate for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general United States Volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865, when he was age 24.
context_section_description: Walker remained at the Berkeley Plantation until his promotion on August 11 to major and transferral with General Couch to the II Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Although the II Corps later saw action at the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg, the latter being under the new command of Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, Walker and the Corps did not join Burnsides's Mud March over the winter. Walker was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 1, 1863, and remained with the II Corps. He fought the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, where his hand and wrist were shattered and neck lacerated by an exploding shell. A record of the 1880 Census indicated that he had "compound fracture of the metacarpal bones of the left hand resulting in permanent extension of his hand". Later in 1896, as the President of MIT, he would receive one of the first radiographs in the country, which documented the extent of the damage to his hand. He did not return to service until August 1863. Walker participated in the Bristoe Campaign and narrowly escaped encirclement during the Battle of Bristoe Station before withdrawing and encamping near the Berry Hill Plantation for much of the winter and spending some leave in the North.
  After extensive reorganization during the winter of 1863–1864, Walker and the Army of the Potomac fought in the Overland Campaign through May and June 1864. The Battle of Cold Harbor in early June took a substantial toll on the ranks of the II Corps and Walker injured his knee during the battle. In the ensuing Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, Walker was appointed a brevet colonel. However, on August 25, 1864, as he rode to find Maj. Gen. John Gibbon at the front during the Second Battle of Ream's Station, Walker was surrounded and captured by the 11th Georgia Infantry. On August 27, Walker was able to escape from a marching prisoner column with another prisoner but was recaptured by the 51st North Carolina Infantry after trying to swim across the Appomattox River and nearly drowning. After being held as a prisoner in Petersburg, he was transferred to the infamous Libby Prison in Richmond, where his older brother was also held. In October 1864, Walker was released with thirty other prisoners as a part of an exchange.
  Walker returned to North Brookfield to recuperate and resigned his commission on January 8, 1865, as a result of his injuries and health. At the end of the war, Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock recommended that Walker be brevetted as a brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers in recognition of his meritorious services during the war and especially his gallant conduct at Chancellorsville. On July 9, 1866, Walker was nominated by President Andrew Johnson for appointment to the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from March 13, 1865 (when he was age 24), for gallant conduct at the battle of Chancellorsville and meritorious services during the war. The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on July 23, 1866.
  After the war, Walker became a companion of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. Based upon his experiences in the military, Walker published two books describing the history of the Second Army Corps (1886) as well as a biography of General Winfield Scott Hancock (1884). Walker was elected Commander of the Massachusetts Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States in 1883 was also the President of the National Military Historical Association.
caption: Walker as an Assistant Adjutant General in the Second Army Corps
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