Walter Gwynn (February 22, 1802 – February 6, 1882) 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. He was a railroad engineer and railroad president before the Civil War, Florida Comptroller in 1863 and a civil engineer after the Civil War.

Early life

Gwynn was born in Jefferson County, Virginia in North Carolina from 1836 to 1840; also during this period, he conducted surveys for several other railroad and canal projects in Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. From 1842 to 1846 he was president of the Portsmouth and Roanoke Railroad, and in 1846, he became president of the James River and Kanawha Canal Company, At the request of the governor, he had accepted the commission and was instrumental in the planning of the attack on Fort Sumter in early 1861 as a member of the Ordnance Board. He was later charged with constructing batteries at various strategic points in Charleston Harbor, facing Fort Sumter.

On April 10, 1861, he accepted a commission as major general of the Virginia Militia and was directed by Virginia governor John Letcher to assume command of the defenses around Norfolk and Portsmouth until mid-May. Working with Gwynn at Norfolk was William Mahone, who was the president of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad. Working under Gwynn's authority, Mahone (who was still a civilian) helped bluff the Federal troops into abandoning the Gosport Shipyard in Portsmouth by running a single passenger train into Norfolk with great noise and whistle-blowing, then much more quietly, sending it back west, and then returning the same train again, creating the illusion of large numbers of arriving troops to the Federals listening in Portsmouth across the Elizabeth River (and just barely out of sight). The ruse worked, and not a single Confederate soldier was lost as the Union authorities abandoned the area, and retreated to Fort Monroe across Hampton Roads.

In 1861, 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. He also participated in the Battle of Big Bethel during the Blockade of the Chesapeake Bay.

Gwynn also 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. All of these general-officer assignments were in the spring and summer of 1861.

By August he joined the Confederate States Army as a major of engineers and was promoted to colonel on October 9, 1862. (Fellow railroader Mahone also joined the Confederate Army, eventually achieving the rank of major general after becoming the so-called 'Hero of the Battle of the Crater,' which took place near Petersburg in 1864.)

Later life

In 1863, he resigned his commission and was named Florida Comptroller. After the war, Gwynn returned to civil engineering in North Carolina. He died in 1882 at the Carrolton Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland,

References

Sources

  • History of Blue Ridge railroad where Gwynn was chief engineer