Walter Husted Stevens graduated 4th in his class of 38 from the United States Military Academy. Stevens entered the Corps of Engineers and for nearly thirteen years performed engineering duties in Louisiana and Texas. His tour in the South and his marriage to the sister of future Confederate general Louis Hebert made Stevens an avowed Southerner in sentiment.
After Texas seceded, he submitted his resignation on March 2, 1861. The War Department refused to accept it and Stevens was eventually dismissed on a technicality on May 2, 1861.
Appointed a captain of engineers in the Confederate army, Stevens acted as Beauregard's engineer officer at First Bull Run. When General Joseph Johnston replaced Beauregard, Stevens remained as chief engineer of the Army of Northern Virginia. He performed his duties during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign until Johnston's wounding at Seven Pines. Johnston's successor, General Robert E. Lee, gave Stevens (now a colonel) command of the defenses of Richmond and for the next two years, Stevens expanded and strengthened the earthworks rimming the Confederate capital.
In the summer of 1864, Lee appointed him chief an engineer of the Army of Northern Virginia. Promoted to brigadier general to rank from August 28, Stevens supervised the Confederate defenses at Petersburg works which defied the Union army for nearly ten months. When Richmond fell on April 2, 1865, Stevens was supposedly the last uniformed man to abandon the city. He surrendered with the army at Appomattox.
Stevens then emigrated to Mexico where he became engineer and superintendent of the Imperial Railroad. He died at Vera Cruz on November 13, 1867.
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