William Dwight Walker was one of those exceptional people you always hope to meet; ordinary on the outside, but extraordinary on the inside. Like many enthusiastic young men of the early 1860's, he couldn't wait to put on a uniform and defend the Union. He wanted to "see the elephant". He did, if no where else in his journey in blue, than at Gettysburg. His wish almost cost him his life. That in and by itself did not make William extraordinary. Enlisting in the Union Army a second time after a long recovery from his near death experience in Pennsylvania did. William D. Walker was born on May 14, 1835 in Shoreham, Vermont to Frederick Walker (1808-1857) and Isabella Woodward (abt. 1810-?). [1] William preferred to be called by his middle name, "Dwight". His father, Frederick, was born in Massachusetts in 1808. Isabel, Dwight's mother, was born in Shoreham, Vermont in 1810. [2] They were married on December 29, 1831 in Shoreham by R. Bottum, Justice of The Peace. [3] In 1850, William lived with his parents and five siblings in Shoreham. Dwight was the second son born into the family. His older brother was four years his senior. Dwight was thirteen in 1850 and Edwin, his older brother, was seventeen. Two more brothers had followed Dwight: Franklin, age six in 1850, and Charles, age four. The family was rounded out by two daughters. The oldest was Charlotte, two in 1850. The baby of the family was Emeline (aka Emma) who was so young when the 1850 Federal Census was taken that the census taker listed her age as "0". Frederick, Dwight's father, owned and operated a farm in Shoreham with the assistance of his oldest sons, Edwin (17) and Dwight (13). [4] Tragedy struck the Walker family on May 26, 1857 when Frederick suddenly died from causes unknown at the early age of forty-nine. [5] The loss appeared catastrophic for the family. The Walkers were fragmented and dispersed into smaller segments. It was difficult to track individuals after Frederick's death. In 1860, twenty-three year old William was out on his own for sure. He lived with strangers in Orwell. The family he lived with were named Chittenden. There was J.H., a prominent farmer in Orwell; his wife, Permela (Pamela); and their four children. J.H.'s real estate holdings were quite substantial, totaling $20,400 in 1860 ( about $359, 244.00 in today's dollars). His personal property added an additional $14,000 to his estate's value. His children ranged in age from thirty-two to seven months. He was sixty-eight and his wife was sixty-two in 1860. There was a twenty-three year age gap between the Chittenden's second child and their third one. The core family was augmented by the presence of two other females and three additional males. The females, Sarah E. Sheldon (eighteen) and Ellen Cadiby (forty-two) were domestic servants. The three men were hired farm hands: John Cadiby (nineteen); William D. Walker (twenty-three); and Peter Shunper (twenty-three). Mr. Chittenden ran a good sized operation in small town Orwell. His thirty-two year old son, De Wit C. Chittenden was off to a good start himself having acquired an impressive $1600 of personal property for himself. [6] War fever swept through this isolated hamlet in April of 1861 just as it did throughout the country after Fort Sumter. William was single, twenty-six and hanging on to the tails of Chittenden's dairy cows. His future prospects looked like more of the same. Why not try something new and more thrilling? So, when the recruiter came to town offering bonuses, a uniform and a change of scenery, it was more than William could resist. On August 29, 1862 the handsome twenty-four year old (he must have lost track of how many birthdays he had celebrated or else the chiseled date on his headstone is wrong) presented himself to C. E. Abell in Shoreham and said he wanted to enlist in the army. The five feet ten and three quarter inch farmer with light complexion, blue eyes and brown hair was accepted into Company D of the Fourteenth Vermont Infantry for a period of nine months. [7] On October 21, 1862, his membership in the regiment became official when the Fourteenth was mustered-in the U.S. service. [8] The Fourteenth Vermont only existed for a short time (they were "Nine Months" men), but they saw hard service during their term of enlistment. At first, the Regiment was attached to those units making up the defenses around Washington, D.C. After December 11, 1862, the Fourteenth was placed on guard duty in and around Fairfax Court House where it was engaged in the repulse of Jeb Stuart's cavalry raid. From March to June, 1863, the Vermonters were stationed at Wolf Run Shoals along with other Vermont troops to guard the vital river ford on the Occoquan River. On the 25th of June, the Fourteenth was attached to the Third Division of the First Corps and began its march northward towards Gettysburg. It was a grueling march sometimes covering twenty miles a day for consecutive days at a time. Over two hundred of the Regiment were forced to drop out before every reaching Gettysburg because they could not keep up the pace. The Fourteenth arrived at Gettysburg too late to take part in the first day's action. It bivouacked in a wheat field to the left of Cemetery Ridge. Late on the second day, the Regiment was called into action to help the Thirteenth Vermont repel an attack by General A.P. Hill on the left center of the Union line. After the tremendous opening cannonade of July 3, during which several men of the Fourteenth were killed by an explosion of a battery caisson, the left flank of Pickett's long grey line could be seen advancing towards the concealed Vermonters. At less than one hundred yards distance from the enemy, the men of the Fourteenth rose at command and delivered a devastating volley into the Confederate columns. The Thirteenth and Sixteenth changed fronts and added their fire to that of the Fourteenth. The result was that Pickett's right wing was caught and crushed. After the main charge was halted and Pickett's divisions were streaming back towards Seminary Ridge, four companies of the Fourteenth, A, F, D, and I, captured most of Confederate General Wilcox's Brigade as prisoners. This independent action taken by the Vermont troops, including Chauncey L. Clark, was credited by the Union high command as being crucial to the turning of Pickett's Charge. The Fourteenth was also part of the Union's pursuit of Lee's forces following the three day battle. It was during this pursuit that, on July 18, 1863, the Fourteenth was released and sent home. The Fourteenth was mustered-out on July 30, 1863.[9] For Private Walker, one of over fifty thousand casualties of the Battle of Gettysburg, the aftermath of those three monumentally bloody days of fighting was quite different from the survivors of the Fourteenth Vermont. According to the "Casualty Sheet" for William Walker, Private, Co. D, 14th Vermont Infantry, he was mortally wounded "July 2-3 '63". His condition was reported by 3 Brigade, 3 Division, 1 Corps on July 4, 1863 and signed by G.J. Stannard, Brig. Genl. Comdg. [10] That he was listed as "mortally" wounded meant that the examining medical staff gave William little, if any, chance of recovering from his wounds. Obviously, based on future records, William survived his fatal injuries received at Gettysburg. His debilitating wounds would have prevented him from taking part in the Fourteenth's chase of Lee and its subsequent mustering out at Brattleboro on July 30, 1863. There was no documentation in his service records to indicate what did happen to him after July 4. Assuming he was treated as any other seriously wounded soldier was after Gettysburg, he would have been placed in one of the hospitals that sprang up in and around Gettysburg. Due to the severity of his diagnosis by the surgeons, he probably was placed off to the side out of sight of the less fatally wounded so he could die quietly and privately. However, he did not comply. He must have slowly improved on his own at first and then with the help of the hospital staff after it became obvious to them that he was going to survive. From the field hospital at Gettysburg, he may have been transferred to a regional hospital, perhaps in Washington, D.C. or Maryland, for a time or he may have been shipped directly to one of the three Army hospitals set up in Vermont. His service records were agonizingly non-existent as to his movements from the field of Gettysburg. What could be verified was that William Dwight Walker, age twenty-seven, enlisted a second time at Plattsburgh, New York, into the 192nd N.Y. Infantry Regiment on March 1, 1865 to serve for one year. William had, apparently, fully recovered from his "mortal" wound at Gettysburg. He was ready and willing to go a second round with fate as a private in Company F of the 192nd as of March 28, 1865. Since Company F was recruited primarily from Plattsburgh, Kingston, Schenectady, Poughkeepsie, Troy and Jamaica, it could be presumed that William was living in one of those communities when he enlisted into the 192nd. [11] This regiment was raised during the last year of the war in the counties of Albany, Renssellaer, Clinton, Schenectady, Oneida and Ulster.