Walter Gwynn Walter Gwynn ( February 22 , 1802 – February 6 , 1882 ) was a civil engineer and soldier who became a Virginia Provisional Army general and North Carolina militia brigadier general in the early days of the American Civil War in 1861 and subsequently a Confederate States Army colonel . He was a railroad engineer and railroad president before the Civil War , Florida Comptroller in 1863 and a civil engineer after the Civil War . Early life . Gwynn was born in Jefferson County , Virginia ( now West Virginia ) , the grandson of Humphrey Gwynn , a descendant of Colonel Hugh Gwynn , who settled in Virginia before 1640 . Walter Gwynn was the son of Thomas Peyton Gwynn , born April 19 , 1762 , and Ann . Thomas Peyton Gwynn died in 1810 , the same year his daughter , Frances Ann Gwynn , married William Branch Giles , Senator and later Governor of Virginia . William B . Giles and Frances were Walter Gwynn ' s guardians in 1818 when he entered West Point , according to the records . United States Military . He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York , in the Class of 1822 and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 2nd U . S . Artillery , later transferring to the 4th U . S . Artillery . In 1827 , while still an artillery lieutenant , he helped survey the route for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad ( B & O ) . Engineer . He resigned his army commission in February 1832 . From 1833 to 1836 , he worked as chief engineer in charge of the construction of the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad . He was Superintendent and Chief Engineer of the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad in North Carolina from 1836 to 1840 ; also during this period , he conducted surveys for several other railroad and canal projects in Florida , North Carolina , and Virginia . From 1842 to 1846 he was president of the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad , and in 1846 , he became president of the James River and Kanawha Canal Company , a position which he held until 1853 , when he moved from Richmond , Virginia , to Raleigh , North Carolina . In 1850 , Gwynn was hired by the North Carolina Rail Road Company as Chief Engineer " Employed on the Surveys and Location of the North Carolina Rail Road , from the commencement of operations to the completion of the location . " Gwynn supervised construction of the North Carolina Railroad until it was completed in early 1856 . Between 1853 and 1855 , he conducted surveys for the Atlantic & North Carolina Railroad and the Western North Carolina Railroad ; and from 1848 to 1855 he was the chief engineer of the Wilmington & Manchester Railroad . He was also chief engineer of the Blue Ridge Rail Road Company in South Carolina in the 1850s . Gwynn ' s concurrent positions with multiple railroads was considered controversial and was criticized at times , but his qualifications and accomplishments overshadowed such criticism . But by the late 1850s , he had established an international reputation as a railroad engineer and as a founder of the southeastern railroad network . A colleague said that Gwynn " made for himself a reputation among his fellow engineers that will last for all time . " In 1857 , he retired from railroad work and moved to South Carolina . Confederate States Military . At the start of the Civil War , Gwynn was a major in the engineers of the South Carolina Militia . At the request of the governor , he had accepted the commission and was instrumental in the planning of the attack on Fort Sumter in early 1861 as a member of the Ordnance Board . He was later charged with constructing batteries at various strategic points in Charleston Harbor , facing Fort Sumter . On April 10 , 1861 , he accepted a commission as major general of the Virginia Militia and was directed by Virginia governor John Letcher to assume command of the defenses around Norfolk and Portsmouth until mid - May . Working with Gwynn at Norfolk was William Mahone , who was the president of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad . Working under Gwynn ' s authority , Mahone ( who was still a civilian ) helped bluff the Federal troops into abandoning the Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth by running a single passenger train into Norfolk with great noise and whistle - blowing , then much more quietly , sending it back west , and then returning the same train again , creating the illusion of large numbers of arriving troops to the Federals listening in Portsmouth across the Elizabeth River ( and just barely out of sight ) . The ruse worked , and not a single Confederate soldier was lost as the Union authorities abandoned the area , and retreated to Fort Monroe across Hampton Roads . In 1861 , Gwynn oversaw construction of defensive fortifications at Sewell ' s Point , which was across the mouth of Hampton Roads from Fort Monroe at Old Point Comfort . He also participated in the Battle of Big Bethel during the Blockade of the Chesapeake Bay . Gwynn also served as a brigadier general in the Virginia Provisional Army and then brigadier general in the North Carolina Militia , commanding the Northern Coast Defenses of North Carolina . All of these general - officer assignments were in the spring and summer of 1861 . By August he joined the Confederate States Army as a major of engineers and was promoted to colonel on October 9 , 1862 . ( Fellow railroader Mahone also joined the Confederate Army , eventually achieving the rank of major general after becoming the so - called ' Hero of the Battle of the Crater , ' which took place near Petersburg in 1864 . ) Later life . In 1863 , he resigned his commission and was named Florida Comptroller . After the war , Gwynn returned to civil engineering in North Carolina . He died in Baltimore , Maryland , and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery , Richmond , Virginia .