page_title: Henry A. Walke
section_title: Civil War
hierarchical_section_title: Henry A. Walke / Civil War
caption_attribution_description: Results of the Court-Martial of Commander Walke, Evening Post, March 29, 1861, Page 1. Note: "Mr. Welles, the Secretary of the Nary, in confirming the sentence, says: I have confirmed this sentence. In carrying it into execution it is my duty, lest you should misconstrue the lenity exhibited by the Court in your case, to remind you that the disobedience, by an officer, of a positive and lawful order of his superior, is one of gravest of military offenses. It strikes at the very foundation of discipline; and therefore, in all cases, met with effective rebuke. I am willing to trust the judgment of the Court that the circumstances in your case are sufficiently palliating to exempt you from the proper punishment for such an offense; but I would admonish you not to be misled as to the character of the offense. You are relieved from arrest. I am, respectfully, your obedient servant, Gideon Welles."
context_page_description: Henry Walke was an officer in the United States Navy during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War.
context_section_description: In January 1861, as the Civil War approached, Walke was in command of Supply at Pensacola, Florida. On the 12th, Captain James Armstrong surrendered the navy yard to Confederate forces from Alabama and Florida. After providing temporary support for the defenders of Fort Pickens, who refused to follow Armstrong's example, Walke took off some of the loyal sailors and navy yard employees and got underway for New York on the 16th. After arriving at New York on February 4, the commander and his ship loaded supplies and reinforcements for Fort Pickens. 
  Supply set sail on March 15 and anchored near the fort on April 7 and landed the troops and supplies without Walke. It turned out that the Navy Secretary Isaac Toucey wanted the USS Supply to sail for Vera Cruz, Mexico with provisions, instead of delivering loyal to the Union cause personnel and their families to New York. In a subsequent court-martial Walke was cleared of several charges but admonished for disobeying his orders to rejoin the squadron of Garrett J. Pendergrast at Vera Cruz.
  Operations supporting the nascent Union blockade preoccupied the Navy, and Walke received orders to take command of one of the Navy's newly acquired steamers. Following that service—during the summer of 1861—and a four-day tour as lighthouse inspector for the 11th District early in September, Walke headed west in response to orders to special duty at St. Louis, Missouri.
  That assignment proved to be the command of Tyler, one of the river gunboats of the Army's Western Flotilla. In September and October, he took his gunboat downriver to bombard Confederate shore batteries at Hickman and Columbus in western Kentucky, and traded a few shots with the Confederate gunboat CSS Jackson. Early in November, his ship supported Ulysses S. Grant's move on the Southern camp at Belmont, Missouri, escorting troop transports, bombarding shore batteries and, finally, covering the withdrawal of Grant's forces from the Battle of Belmont.
  In mid-January 1862, Commander Walke assumed command of the ironclad warship Carondelet, also assigned to the Western Flotilla. In February 1862, during his tenure as Carondelet's commanding officer, Walke led her during the captures of Forts Henry and Donelson which guarded the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, respectively. In April, he led her in the passing of heavily fortified Island Number Ten and in the attack on and spiking of shore batteries below New Madrid, Missouri, in Battle of Island Number Ten. From April through the end of June, his ship participated in the drawn-out series of operations against Plum Point Bend, Fort Pillow, and Memphis. On July 15, Commander Walke almost met his match when the Confederate ironclad ram CSS Arkansas made its move down the falling Yazoo River toward Vicksburg. Carondelet supported by Queen of the West and Walke's former command, Tyler, engaged the Southern ironclad. During the brisk opening exchange, Carondelet suffered heavy damage and was forced out of action in a disabled, though floating, condition. Queen of the West retreated immediately, leaving only little Tyler to face the powerful ram. The Southern warship, consequently, made it safely to the stronghold at Vicksburg.
  On August 4, 1862, Walke was promoted to captain and assumed command of the ironclad ram Lafayette then under conversion from a river steamer at St. Louis. He put her in commission on February 27, 1863, and commanded her during the dash past Vicksburg on April 6 and during the duel with shore batteries at Grand Gulf on the 29th. That summer, his ship briefly blockaded the mouth of the Red River early in June.
  On July 24, Captain Walke was ordered back to the East Coast to prepare the sidewheeler Fort Jackson for service. He put her in commission on August 18, 1863 at New York, but his command of that steamer proved brief. On  September 22, he was transferred to the screw sloop Sacramento, which he commanded through the final two years of the Civil War, cruising the South American coast in search of Confederate commerce raiders. On August 17, 1865, he was detac
caption: Results of the Court-Martial of Commander Walke, Evening Post, March 29, 1861
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