William Stewart Walker William Stewart Walker , usually known as Stewart Walker ( October 6 , 1914 – February 6 , 1999 ) , was a lieutenant colonel from Winnfield , Louisiana who , during World War II as a United States Army major , rescued 380 of his fellow soldiers from behind enemy lines in Belgium in December 1944 . In 1964 , he ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for Louisiana ' s 8th congressional district seat in the United States House of Representatives , a position now defunct . Large family . Walker was born in the Wyatt Community of southern Jackson Parish just north of the Winn Parish line in north Louisiana , to William Thomas Walker and the former Mary Elizabeth " Lizzie " Stovall ( 1877 – 1951 ) , Walker was descended from a large and influential family . William Thomas and Lizzie Walker married in 1896 and had ten other children : Charles Elmer Walker ( 1897 – 1941 ) , Pyburn Elton Walker ( 1899 – 1987 ) , Edgar Lee " Ed " Walker ( 1901 – 1972 ) , Vester Walker ( 1902 – 1906 ) , Gladys Oneta Walker ( 1904 – 1963 ) , William Elmo Walker ( 1905 – 1956 ) , L . Z . Walker ( 1907 – 1993 ) , Grace Mae Walker ( 1909 – 1991 ) , Edwin Olen Walker ( 1911 – 1978 ) , and George Thomas Walker , Sr . ( 1913 – 2011 ) . At the time of his mother ' s death in 1951 , the obituary lists Walker as a lieutenant colonel in Vienna , Austria . " Ed " Walker was a football coach at the University of Mississippi at Oxford who led his team to an early Orange Bowl competition , and Olen Walker had been a college football player . George T . Walker , the only sibling to survive William S . Walker , was a dean at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches and the retired president of the University of Louisiana at Monroe . Walker was a cousin of Morgan W . Walker , Sr . , an Alexandria businessman who was president and founder of Continental Trailways . Walker graduated from Northwestern State University . On September 1 , 1940 , he married the former Mary Elizabeth Abel ( November 29 , 1911 – September 2 , 1999 ) , a music teacher in Winnfield and the daughter of Mr . and Mrs . P . K . Abel . Military exploits . Walker ’ s military exploits in December 1944 were related by the Associated Press war correspondent Kenneth L . Dixon , later of " Baton Rouge Morning Advocate " . In an article entitled “ Major William S . Walker Leads Yanks From Nazis Lines In Daring Exploit ; Beat Off Numerous Attacks In 6 Days , ” Dixon describes Walker as having used “ cage strategy ” to bring his men to safety . Dixon reported that the men had been “ isolated and encircled for five days and nights ” east of Marche , Belgium . Dixon described the exploits as : ( 1 ) penetration of enemy lines for more than thirty miles , ( 2 ) trapped by three Panzer divisions ( 3 ) fighting a stealth strategy to keep the Nazis confused until the Americans ’ fuel supplies were exhausted ( 4 ) digging into a village to thwart an enemy counterattack ( 5 ) refusal to surrender no matter how hopeless their prospects appeared . Walker carefully conserved his gasoline and still tried to strike through the Nazi parallel lines . Each attempt encountered overwhelming antitank , mortar , and artillery resistance . " Finally we closed up for the night there on the road , with both ends digging in , " Walker was quoted by Dixon . Soon a radio message from headquarters ordered the men to fight their way back to the Allied lines . Walker directed the task force against a large enemy infantry force . He spotted a village on a high , mostly barren hill , and the task force pushed through to reach the town . Hogan had already arrived there four hours earlier . Using their last fuel , the Americans moved their tanks , half - tracks , and artillery pieces to seven roads leading from town . They then erected roadblocks . ” On December 23 , 1944 , pilots in unarmed C - 47s attempted unsuccessfully to fly in supplies . On December 24 , three German officers appeared in half - tracks bearing a white flag . They told Hogan that the Allied position was hopeless . The men saluted when Hogan replied that he had been ordered to fight to the finish . Lieutenant Harold L . W . Randall of White Cloud , Kansas , led an exploratory patrol . On Christmas Day , the force was ordered to try to make a run for it . The men blackened their faces and removed their helmets to confuse enemy patrols . They damaged their armored vehicles to make them useless to the enemy . Hogan ’ s men hiked over terrain so rugged that the Nazis had not thought it necessary to man the areas . Finally , on December 26 , all but twenty of the four hundred men returned in triumph . Walker ' s subsequent activities were thereafter reported by the " New Orleans Times Picayune " under the headline “ ’ Task Force Hogan ’ Back from New Armored Raid Deep into Germany ” on January 9 , 1945 . There is no evidence that Walker received any medals or commendation for his work in the relief of the soldiers in Belgium . Republican Party . On returning to Louisiana after his military career ended in compulsory retirement , Walker taught military science for a time at his " alma mater " , Northwestern State University , where his brother , George T . Walker , was the dean . He soon became active in the budding movement to establish a competitive Republican Party in Louisiana , having first been a candidate for the Louisiana State Senate in the general election held on March 3 , 1964 , the same contest in which Charlton Lyons , who also had Winn Parish ties , carried the Republican banner for governor . Walker was defeated , 81 - 19 percent , by the Democratic nominee , former State Representative W . L . Rambo of Georgetown in Grant Parish , who was allied with the Long faction and was even married to a member of the Long family , the former Mary Alice Long . That summer , Walker was one of twenty delegates from Louisiana to the Republican National Convention in San Francisco , which nominated U . S . Senator Barry M . Goldwater of Arizona for president in the race against Lyndon B . Johnson . Four congressional nominees from Louisiana were invited to meet privately with former President Dwight D . Eisenhower , who endorsed the GOP slate , including Walker , future Governor David C . Treen of suburban New Orleans , publisher Robert Angers of Lafayette , and businessman Floyd O . Crawford ( 1907 – 1995 ) of Baton Rouge , who opposed incumbent Representative and former gubernatorial candidate James H . Morrison of Hammond . Walker ’ s opponent was Speedy O . Long , an attorney and a former state senator from Jena , the seat of La Salle Parish . Considered the most conservative of the Longs , Speedy had unseated his cousin , Gillis William Long of Alexandria , in the Democratic primary in the summer of 1964 . Walker ’ s showing , a half percent better than Treen received in his race against the Democrat Hale Boggs , may have been a reflection of continuing Long factional divisions , which had appeared in 1963 in the gubernatorial primary . In that campaign , U . S . Representative Gillis Long was endorsed by U . S . Senator Russell B . Long , the son of Huey Pierce Long , Jr . , and the successful rival , John J . McKeithen , carried the backing of Blanche Long , Earl Long ’ s politically influential widow . Goldwater was an easy winner in Louisiana and polled large majorities in the northern half of the state prior to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 , which brought forth the registration of large numbers of African Americans . Goldwater provided a boost to Walker but insufficient help to defeat a Long candidate . Long prevailed , 33 , 250 votes ( 54 . 5 percent ) to Walker ’ s 27 , 735 ( 45 . 5 percent ) . Walker carried only Rapides Parish but polled at least 40 percent in Sabine , Natchitoches , Grant , La Salle , and Winn parishes . Walker never again sought office and was not visibly involved thereafter in politics . Death . After more than three decades of retirement , Walker died at St . Frances Cabrini Hospital in Alexandria at the age of eighty - four . His services were held on February 9 , 1999 , at Edmond ' s Funeral Home Chapel in Winnfield . Nine months after her husband ’ s passing , Elizabeth Walker died in Winn Parish Medical Center . Her services were held in the First United Methodist Church in Winnfield . Pastor Barry Hoekstra , later of First United Methodist in Alexandria , officiated at the services for both . The Walkers had three children , Mary Elizabeth " Betty " Walker ( born August 30 , 1948 ) , then of Boston , Massachusetts , William T . " Will " Walker ( born on March 12 , 1950 , and adopted in Linz , Austria ) and wife Shirley , then of Tallahassee , Florida , and Stewart Abel Walker ( born September 22 , 1951 ) , then of New York City , and two grandchildren , the offspring of Will Walker . William and Mary Elizabeth Walker are interred at the family plot at Transport Cemetery in Dodson in Winn Parish . A previous William S . Walker . Another William S . Walker served in the Confederate Army and died from wounds received in 1864 at the Battle of Mansfield in DeSoto Parish . Like the 20th - century Walker , the 19th - century William S . Walker was a lieutenant colonel . He was listed in the first Winn Parish census in 1860 as having been an Alabama native and twenty - eight years of age . He became only the second sheriff of Winn Parish , leaving the position to join the Confederate Army . It is believed that this Walker , who was married to the former Rosanna McCreight , was buried at Mansfield Cemetery and that his remains were later exhumed and reburied in a family plot near Jonesboro , the seat of Jackson Parish . The Winnfield chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy is named after the first William S . Walker . There were many Walkers in the area over both centuries and no indication that the World War II William Stewart Walker was a descendant of the Confederate William S . Walker .