Joseph A. Walker (colonel)

Joseph was born on May 18, 1835, at Spartanburg, South Carolina. His prewar life consisted of being a clerk and a merchant as well as marrying Susan Elizabeth Walker at one point.[1] A few months before the outbreak of the American Civil War, Walker raised the Spartan Rifles at Spartanburg and was elected captain of the rifles.[2]

When the American Civil War broke out, the Spartan Rifles were integrated into the 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment as Company K on April 13, 1861, and Walker would command the company for a year until he was transferred to the Palmetto Sharpshooters where he would be a lieutenant colonel on April 15, 1862.[2][3] He was then fully promoted to colonel on July 22 of the same year.[1] Walker was then a part of Robert E. Lee's Army of the Potomac as the main colonel of Micah Jenkins' brigade.[4] Walker would then serve at the Battle of South Mountain[4] and the Battle of Antietam.[5] Parham would then serve as a state representative of South Carolina in 1864 before surrendering around the end of the American Civil War.[1]

After the war, Walker returned to becoming a merchant until 1875.[1][2] He would then be in the cotton and fertilizer trade until 1885.[2] After that, he reorganized the Merchants and Farmers Bank and became president of the bank.[1][2] He would also be Mayor of Spartanburg for around 10 years.[2] Walker died on January 27, 1902, and would be buried on Oakwood Cemetery at Spartanburg.

James L. Kemper considered Walker to be a "A capital soldier, a good disciplinarian, and peculiarly adapted to command our citizen soldiers."[1]