George Washington Tucker was born March 25, 1838 in Alabama, according to census records. He was in Upshur County, Texas,  in 1860 and on Nov. 7, 1861, he married Malinda, who was born in 1840 in Pontorox County, Mississippi.  I've been told Malinda was a Jones.  Evidently they were an adventurous couple as they were in Upshur County in 1870,  Hood County in1880, Travis County in 1891 and Burnet County in 1900, where three families lived between them and the Robert Pogues. The Pogue's daughter, Lillian, married the Tucker son, George Basley Tucker in 1891.

George died Aug. 18, 1918 and Malinda died Apr. 28, 1920 and both are buried in Fairland Cemetery, Burnet County, Texas.  Photo of Tucker tombstone.

On Jan 13, 1862, George W. Tucker enlisted in Co. G, Young's Reg., which was also the 8th Texas Infantry at Camp Hebert, near Hempstead. He traveled 175 miles from Gilmer to Hempstead.  The troops were ordered to Little Rock, Arkansas in Oct., 1862, where General John G. Walker assumed command of all the Texas Units and Walker's Division was organized at Camp Nelson, Arkansas. That first winter, 1500 men died of measles and pneumonia before they ever saw battle.  I searched for Camp Nelson for over 40 years (my g-g-gtandfather served there as a nurse) and it was only in 2001 that I was visiting in Arkansas and asked a friend if he knew where it was located. He laughed and told me it was at Cabot, only about 35 miles from where I lived for 4 years in the 1980s. Of course, I was there the next morning, where I found a beautiful cemetery which had been restored by the citizens of Cabot about 20-25 years ago.

Walker's Division was composed of 23 companies of Infantry and dismounted Cavalry. It was the largest Confederate outfit composed of troops from a single state, and was known by the Union troops as Walker's Greyhounds. This was in respect of the long distance-forced marches which put them anywhere in Arkansas or Louisiana where the Union threatened. They were the Backbone of the Trans-Mississippi Department.

In April of 1863 the Division was ordered to Louisiana, and later saw action at Perkins Landing, Milikins Bend and Young's Point in the Vicksburg area.  Perhaps their hottest battle was at Mansfield, Louisiana, as well as Pleasant Hill and Shreveport.

On April 15, Walker's Division marched back into Camp Groce, near Hempstead; Lee had surrendered on the 9th and the men were tired of the war. Some of the bigwigs of the Trans-Mississippi had ideas of continuing the war, but the men had had enough. On May 19, 1865, the men returned home; they didn't surrender, they weren't captured; they had just seen enough of war to know when it was over. When Kirby Smith surrendered the Trans-Mississippi Department, his army no longer existed.

The devotion and sacrifices that these Texas men endured should not be forgotten.

NOTE:  This biography was prepared and read by Esther Pogue at a ceremony marking the grave of George Washington Tucker by the Adam R. Johnson Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, April 2007.