Walker Keith Armistead
{{Infobox military person
| name = Walker Keith Armistead
| image = Colonel Walker Keith Armistead.jpg
| image_size = 225
| caption = Col. Walker Keith Armistead
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1773|3|25}}
| birth_place = New Market, Virginia, Colony of Virginia, British America
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1845|10|13|1773|3|25}}
| death_place = New Market, Virginia, U.S.
| placeofburial = Armistead Family Cemetery
Upperville, Virginia, U.S.
| children = Lewis Armistead
| relations = George Armistead (brother)
| awards =
| nickname =
| allegiance = {{Flag|United States of America|1818}}
| branch = {{army|USA}}
| serviceyears = 1803–1845
| rank = 20px Colonel
20px Brevet Brigadier General
| unit =
| commands = 3rd Artillery Regiment
United States Army Corps of Engineers
| battles = Northwest Indian War
War of 1812
Second Seminole War
| laterwork =
}}
Walker Keith Armistead (March 25, 1773 – October 13, 1845) was a military officer who served as Chief of Engineers of the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
Armistead was born in Upperville, Fauquier County, Virginia, and served as an orderly sergeant at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. He graduated from West Point in 1803. During the War of 1812, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and successively served as Chief Engineer of the Niagara frontier army and the forces defending Chesapeake Bay. He was promoted to colonel and Chief Engineer on November 12, 1818. When the Army was reorganized on June 1, 1821, he became commander of the 3rd Artillery Regiment. He was brevetted brigadier general in November 1828. He succeeded Zachary Taylor as commander of the army during the Second Seminole War against the Seminole Indians in Florida in 1840–1841.
After 42 years of service as a commissioned officer, Armistead died in New Market, Virginia, at the age of 72, and is buried in the Armistead family cemetery in Upperville.
Family
His brother George Armistead commanded Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in the War of 1812. The attack became immortalized by onlooker Francis Scott Key who penned "The Star-Spangled Banner" while watching the British bombardment of Armistead's fort.
His son Lewis Addison Armistead was a Confederate general who died during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{cite web | title=Colonel Walker Keith Armistead
| work=Portraits and Profiles of Chief Engineers | url=http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/coe.htm#7 | accessdate=May 13, 2005 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20050404183705/http://www.hq.usace.army.mil/history/coe.htm#7 |archivedate = April 4, 2005}}
- {{cite BDA1906 |wstitle= Armistead, Walker Keith |volume= 1 |page= 136 |year=1906 |short=1}}
- [https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Places/America/United_States/Army/USMA/Cullums_Register/3*.html Service Profile]
- [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26413309 Find a Grave]
{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{succession box
| title = Chief of Engineers
| before = Joseph Gardner Swift
| after = Alexander Macomb, Jr.
| years = 1818–1821
}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armistead, Walker Keith}}
Category:United States Military Academy alumni
Category:United States Army personnel of the War of 1812
Category:United States Army personnel of the Seminole Wars
Category:People from Fauquier County, Virginia