Samuel Hamilton Walker was born on February 24, 1817, at Toaping Castle, Maryland, to Nathan and Elizabeth (Thomas) Walker, and was the fifth of seven children. He owned a slave named David.[1][2]
Walker enlisted in the Washington City Volunteers for the Creek Indian Campaign in Alabama in 1836. The following year he mustered out and worked as a scout in Florida until 1841. He arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1842 and served under Captain Jesse Billingsley against a Mexican invasion led by General Adrian Woll. Walker was captured on December 26, 1842, and marched to Mexico City as a prisoner of war. He survived what became known as the Black Bean Episode and was held prisoner for two years before he escaped to Louisiana and returned to Texas.[3][4]
Walker is best known as the co-inventor of the Walker Coltrevolver, along with arms manufacturer Samuel Colt. Walker is said to have self-funded a trip to New York City to meet with Colt and proposed to him the concept of a weapon based on the then-popular five-shot Colt Paterson revolver, with many enhancements such as adding a sixth round, being powerful enough to kill either a man or a horse with a single shot and quicker to reload.[6]
Colt's firearms company was no longer in business, but the large order allowed Colt to establish a new company. He hired Eli Whitney Junior, already in the arms business, to make his new revolvers.[7] Colt asked Samuel Walker, who happened to be temporarily stationed in Washington, to help him with the design.[8]
Colt used his prototype and Walker's improvements to create a new design. Whitney
produced the first thousand-piece order, known as the Colt Walker. The company then received an order for an additional one thousand more. Colt's share of the profits was $10.[7]
By 1847, the new revolver was available. The United States Army's mounted rifle companies were issued them, and they proved extremely effective.[9]
On October 9, 1847, Walker was killed by a sniper's bullet while leading a cavalry charge at the Battle of Huamantla.[10]
The following year, his remains were moved to San Antonio. On April 21, 1856, as part of the 20th anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto, Walker was reburied in the Odd Fellows' Cemetery at San Antonio, along with Capt Robert Gillespie, a fellow veteran who was killed in action during the Mexican-American War. [11]
^Charles D. Spurlin. "WALKER, SAMUEL HAMILTON". Handbook of Texas Online (See "Notes" section). Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
K. Jack Bauer, The Mexican War, 1846–1848 (New York: Macmillan, 1974).
Albert Gallatin Brackett, General Lane's Brigade in Central Mexico (Cincinnati and New York: Derby, 1854).
Edmund L. Dana, "Incidents in the Life of Capt. Samuel H. Walker, Texan Ranger," Proceedings of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society (1882).
"Reminiscences of the War with Mexico, As Told by Col. Thos. Claiborne," Vedette 7 (April 1886). Marilyn M. Sibley, ed., Samuel H. Walker's Account of the Mier Expedition (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1978).
Charles D. Spurlin, "Ranger Walker in the Mexican War," Military History of Texas and the Southwest 9 (1971).
Doug J. Swanson, Cult of Glory: The Bold and Brutal History of the Texas Rangers (New York: Viking, 2020)
