Walter H . Stevens Walter Husted Stevens ( August 24 , 1827 – November 12 , 1867 ) was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War ( Civil War ) . He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York and served in the corps of engineers , mostly in Louisiana and Texas . He was an engineer for the Army of Northern Virginia . He was reputed to be the last uniformed man to cross the Mayo Bridge during the evacuation of Richmond , Virginia after the Confederate defenses of Petersburg , Virginia collapsed on April 2 , 1865 . After the Civil War , Stevens became the superintendent and engineer of the Mexican Imperial Railroad . He died of yellow fever at Vera Cruz , Mexico , November 12 , 1867 . Early life . Walter H . Stevens was born August 24 , 1827 at Penn Yan , New York . Stevens graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York fourth in his class of thirty - eight in 1848 . He was assigned to the Corps of Engineers as a brevet second lieutenant on July 1 , 1848 . He was appointed a full grade second lieutenant on May 28 , 1853 and a first lieutenant on July 1 , 1855 . Stevens ' s Southern sympathy is explained by his corps of engineers service mainly in Louisiana and Texas and his marriage to a sister of Confederate Brigadier General Louis Hebert . Stevens offered his resignation from the U . S . Army on March 2 , 1861 , when Texas passed its ordinance of secession , but it was refused and he was dismissed from the service on a technicality on May 2 , 1861 . Meanwhile , on March 16 , 1861 , Stevens had been appointed a captain of engineers in the Army of the Confederate States ( the regular army of the Confederate States ) . American Civil War service . Walter H . Stevens was immediately promoted to major in the regular Confederate States Army on March 16 , 1861 . He was assigned as engineer for the Confederate Army at Pensacola , Florida in April 1861 . Between June 1861 and June 1 , 1862 , he was assigned as engineer in the Confederate Army of the Potomac and , after its change of name , the Army of Northern Virginia . In this capacity he served under General P . G . T . Beauregard at the Battle of First Bull Run ( First Manassas ) and under General Joseph E . Johnston during the Peninsula Campaign and the Battle of Seven Pines . Stevens was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 31 , 1862 . From June 1 , 1862 to February 1864 , Walter H . Stevens was assigned as engineer in the Department of Richmond , which he strengthened . He was promoted to colonel on March 3 , 1863 . He was assigned to the Defenses of Richmond , in the Department of Richmond , from February 1864 to July 20 , 1864 . On July 20 , 1864 , he returned as chief engineer in the Army of Northern Virginia and served with it through the Siege of Petersburg , strengthening the defenses of that city , and the Appomattox Campaign . Walter Husted Stevens was promoted to brigadier general on August 28 , 1864 under the law permitting Confederate President Jefferson Davis to appoint twenty special brigadier generals . Historians Ezra J . Warner and Jeffry D . Wert say Stevens was supposedly the last uniformed man to cross the Mayo Bridge at Richmond , Virginia when the Confederate States Army and Confederate government evacuated Richmond on the night of April 2 , 1865 after the fall of the defenses of Petersburg , Virginia at the Battle of Five Forks and the Third Battle of Petersburg . Stevens was paroled at Appomattox Court House on April 9 , 1865 . Aftermath . After the Civil War , Stevens went to Mexico where he was superintendent and engineer for the Mexican Imperial Railroad , a railroad line planned by Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico to run between Vera Cruz and Mexico City , Mexico . Walter H . Stevens died of yellow fever at Vera Cruz , November 12 , 1867 . Walter Husted Stevens is buried in Hollywood Cemetery , Richmond Virginia .