Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/733

Rh Here he remained until the spring of 1852, and was in the graduating class of that year, when he took offense at some remark made to him by Stonewall Jackson (then Professor Jackson), in the lecture room, and a passage of sharp words took place between the two. Cadet Walker, feeling that he had been publicly insulted and wronged by Professor Jackson, sent him a challenge to fight a duel. It is related of Jackson by one with whom he consulted on the occasion, that, notwithstanding he was a grave professor and the challenger a mere boy, he for a considerable time, debated in his mind the propriety of accepting the challenge, expressing a serious wish that it was possible to do so. Walker's rebellion in the class-room was a grave offense, at an institution where strict military discipline is maintained; but the sending of a challenge to one of the principal officers and professors was a crime not to be overlooked or forgiven, and though Walker stood high in his class, and was popular with all who knew his honest heart and chivalric qualities, he was court-martialed and dismissed from the institution. In after years, when Jackson and Walker met, as officers in the field, and the former saw his wayward pupil in the front of every fight, always prompt, never shirking the most arduous duties, nor flinching in the most trying and dangerous situations, he freely blotted from his remembrance all thought of the occurrence between them at the institute, and pushed him for promotion whenever there was an opportunity to do so. They became friends and no officer in the army stood higher in the esteem of Jackson than Walker. After the war General Walker's diploma was sent to him by order of the board of visitors, and he is enrolled as a graduate of the Virginia military institute. After leaving the institute. Walker accepted a position in the engineer corps, then engaged in locating the line of the Covington & Ohio (now Chesapeake & Ohio) railroad, from the Big Sandy river to Charlestown, and in this rough and unexciting life he spent eighteen months. He then resigned and returned to his home in Augusta county. Shortly afterward he began to read law in the office of Col. John B. Baldwin, at Staunton. During the session of 1854-55 he took a law course at the university of Virginia, and immediately afterward began to practice his profession at Newbern, Pulaski county, Va. In 1860 he