Walker, Confederate Agent

The envelope below bears the "GFW" monogram seal of Georgiana F. Walker on the back flap. Georgiana was the wife of CSA Major Norman S. Walker. She arrived in St. George's on 24 March 1863 and remained there until June 1864 when she went to England to escape a yellow fever epidemic. The "Rose Hill" home shared by Major Walker, Georgiana, and a local commission merchant was a perennial open
house for the supporters of the Confederacy.

Major Walker played a key role for the Confederacy from the time of his arrival at St. George's Bermuda late in 1862 until the end of the war. He was not only the military agent who coordinated the delivery of
armaments and military supplies to the South and cotton to England, he served as fiscal agent.

Walker is mentioned several times in the diary of James H. Burton including September 1863 entries which relate Walker's help in making arrangements for Edward James, a noted local artist and watercolorist, to make drawings for the design of a machine needed for boring rifle stocks to accommodate ramrods that Burton was ordering from Greenwood & Batley in England.

Posted by Richard Frajola