William W. Bennett, A narrative of the great revival which prevailed in the Southern armies during the late Civil War

[166] his serious illness, Gen. Walker deemed it unadvisable to apprise him of the departure of his regiment. He thus wrote to a friend: “I learned of their departure after they left, and I sat on the railroad side till midnight to come with Gen. Walker, and came with him notwithstanding his grumbling.”

On the day of the battle of Ellyson's Mill he was so feeble and exhausted by long sickness that it was absolutely necessary to assist him on and off his horse. He was so weak that it was with difficulty he could sit upright in his saddle. But his brave spirit and inflexible, iron will refused to succumb. Emaciated and exhausted as he was, he yet unfalteringly led his regiment through that deadly tempest of shot and shell until he fell, three times wounded. After he had fallen, to those who went to assist him he would still cry, “Charge, men! Charge!” It was a Marmion scene. With much reluctance he then consented to be carried off the field of carnage. Two days later the brave soldier and Christian warrior breathed his last, and angel voices in choral strains bade his hero soul welcome to “ home, sweet home.”

Worthy to stand by the side of Colonel Smith was Major John Stewart Walker, of the 15th Virginia regiment, who closed a useful and holy life on the bloody hill of Malvern. He entered the army from a sense of duty. The pomp and circumstance of war had no charms for him apart from the principles involved. As the captain of a company, he joined the Army of the Peninsula, and nobly shared in that arduous campaign, which, opening with the battle of Bethel, closed with the evacuation of Yorktown. He was a friend and father to the young men whom he led to the war. He watched over their health and their morals, and thus gained their confidence and love. During the dreary days spent in winter quarters, he provided a library of select reading for his men, and thus relieved while he instructed and elevated their minds.