WHITAKER, Walter e., soldier, born in Shelby county, Kentucky, in August, 1823; died in Lyndon, Kentucky, 9 July, 1887. He received his education at Bethany college, West Virginia, under the presidency of Alexander Campbell, and had begun the study of law, when, at the opening of the war with Mexico, he entered the regiment of Kentucky volunteers as lieutenant and served with gallantry. At the end of the war he resumed his legal studies, and soon afterward he opened an office at Shelbyville, Kentucky, devoting himself chiefly to criminal law, in which he won reputation. He also carried on large farm, and took an active part in politics. He was a member of the state senate in 1861, when Kentucky was invaded by the Confederate army, which, early in September, took possession of Columbus, he offered the resolution, which was almost unanimously adopted, "that the governor be requested to call out the military force of the state to expel and drive out the invaders." This resolution terminated the sham neutrality the state had undertaken to uphold. Soon afterward Senator Whitaker entered the military service as colonel of the 6th Kentucky infantry, which was mustered in early in September, and moved to meet General Simon B. Buckner's advance to Muldraugh's hill. From that time till the close of the war his service was constant. He took an active part in the battle of Shiloh, in which his regiment lost 103 killed or wounded, and also in the battle of Stone river, and on 25 June, 1863, he was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers. At Chickamauga his brigade was in the reserve corps that marched upon the field at the critical moment and repelled the assault of the enemy on the National right. At the capture of Lookout Mountain he was wounded, but he continued on the field He was subsequently in all the engagements of the Atlanta campaign and the battle of Nashville, and was promoted brevet major-general for gallant services. At the end of the war he returned to the practice of his profession at Louisville, and became connected with some of the most famous criminal trials in that region. He was a man of marked individuality of manner and character, and of an impetuous temper, which involved him in numerous personal difficulties, and led to his becoming for a time an inmate of an insane asylum But in his later years he fully recovered his health, and had his share of legal practice.