Mack Walker was born in 1840, and grew up in Marengo County, at Cedar Grove, near Uniontown. Like so many families of the South, when the War came he enlisted as a 1st Lt. with the 36th Infantry Regiment Company D which organized in 1862 near Mobile.
Mack Walker's regiment fought first in Tennessee and then was ordered to the defense of Atlanta. The Battle of Resaca was fought in northeast Georgia against troops under the command of Sherman between May 13 and 15, 1864 and there Walker suffered an injury that required amputation of his leg.
By May 24th he had died and his brother David traveled to Georgia to bring his body home to Alabama. Like many others, the Walker family had lost a very young son, only 24, who was buried in the Rosemont Cemetery at Uniontown.
What is his connection with the First White House of the Confederacy in Montgomery, Alabama? Two words, Nicola Marschall, artist and friend of the Confederacy. Marschall came to the West Alabama area and became friends with the Walker family. He spent time at their home in Cedar Grove and painted a life size portrait of the young Lt. Mac Walker. It was probably done posthumously from a photographic carte de viste.
We have two of Nicola Marschall's paintings at the First White House in our Second Parlor. One is a self-portrait and the other is of his wife, Mary Eliza "Mattie" Marschall of Marion, Alabama who had been one of his students at the Marion Female Seminary.
And the painting of Lt. Mack Walker? It is at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. An exhibit titled Nicola Marschall and the Walker Family at Cedar Grove Plantation was on display at the Montgomery Museum April-June of 2010. We were so happy to have our self-portrait in the exhibit.
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