Walter Kennedy

     Walter Kennedy was born on 22 November 1842 near Camden, Kershaw County, South Carolina.^3,1 He was the son of William Kennedy II and Mary Haile.^1,2 He and Sarah Kimbrough Munson, daughter of Mordello Stephen Munson and Sarah Kimbrough Armour, obtained a marriage license on 29 November 1880 in Brazoria County, Texas.⁴ They married on 2 February 1881 at the home of Sarah's parents, Ridgely Plantation, Bailey's Prairie, Brazoria County, Texas.¹ He died on 28 November 1926 at the home of his son Bill, Port Arthur, Jefferson County, Texas, at age 84.^3,5 He was buried in Angleton Cemetery, Angleton, Brazoria County, Texas.³
     
     After a year in college and at the age of 18, Walter Kennedy volunteered on 21 July 1861 as a private in the South Carolina Volunteers of the Confederate Army. He was assigned to Company E, 9th Infantry Regiment. This was the exact date of the first battle of the war at Bull Run, Virginia. He was discharged due to illness on October 12, 1861, and soon thereafter volunteered as a “sharpshooter” in the 7th South Carolina Cavalry. He was assigned to Company H, 15th Squadron. This became General Longstreet’s Corps, which fought in General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Virginia until the end of the war. Longstreet’s Corp was engaged in battles at Bull Run, Antietam, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, and Richmond.⁶

     In 1869, Walter's father William moved his family from South Carolina to his Waverly Plantation, near Chenango, Brazoria County, Texas,, now the Ramsey State Prison Farm near Chenango. William died in 1869, and Walter inherited Waverly Plantation. He remained a bachelor until 1881 when at age 39 he married 22 year old Sarah "Doll" Munson. They made their home at Waverly Plantation until, according to their daughter Mary, 1902 when the family moved in with Doll's father Mordello Munson at Ridgely Plantation, and when Mordello died in 1903, they moved to Angleton.⁶