Walter Gwynn was an American 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.
12 Facts About Walter Gwynn
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Walter Gwynn was a railroad engineer and railroad president before the Civil War, Florida Comptroller in 1863 and a civil engineer after the Civil War.
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Thomas Peyton Walter Gwynn died in 1810, the same year his daughter, Frances Ann Walter Gwynn, married William Branch Giles, Senator and later Governor of Virginia.
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Walter Gwynn 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 US Artillery, later transferring to the 4th US Artillery.
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Walter Gwynn was Superintendent and Chief Engineer of the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad in North Carolina from 1836 to 1840; during this period, he conducted surveys for several other railroad and canal projects in Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia.
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Walter Gwynn was chief engineer of the Blue Ridge Rail Road Company in South Carolina in the 1850s.
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At the start of the Civil War, Walter Gwynn was a major in the engineers of the South Carolina Militia.
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Walter Gwynn was later charged with constructing batteries at various strategic points in Charleston Harbor, facing Fort Sumter.
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In 1861, Walter 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.
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Walter Gwynn participated in the Battle of Big Bethel during the Blockade of the Chesapeake Bay.
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Walter Gwynn 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.
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Walter Gwynn died in 1882 at the Carrolton Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland, and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.