Last updated: August 25, 2026
Person
Wyker, Walter C.
NPS Photo
Quick Facts
Significance:
Private Company K, 59th Illinois Infantry
Place of Birth:
New Jersey
Date of Birth:
1842
Place of Death:
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Date of Death:
April 22nd, 1863
Place of Burial:
Murfreesboro, Tennessee
Cemetery Name:
Stones River National Cemetery
| Walter C. Wyker was born in 1842 in New Jersey to Eveline Wyker. As a young adult, he left his home state and settled in Pecatonica, Winnebago County, Illinois working as a carpenter. At nineteen, Wyker chose to join the Union cause during the Civil War. He enlisted on September 1, 1861, in Chicago and mustered in five days later as a private in Company K of the 59th Illinois Infantry. Records describe him as standing 5 feet 5½ inches tall, with dark hair, gray eyes, and a light complexion. The regiment Wyker joined had only recently taken shape. First organized as the 9th Missouri Infantry in September 1861, it was redesignated as the 59th Illinois Infantry the following February. Much of its early service took place in Missouri, where Union forces were working to secure the state. Wyker and his fellow soldiers saw their first major combat at the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862 in Arkansas. From there, the regiment moved south to take part in the Siege of Corinth in Mississippi that May. They fought in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky in October 1862, moved to Nashville, Tennessee with the Army of the Cumberland. In December, they fought at Stones River as part of Col. P. Sidney Post’s brigade in Gen. Jefferson C. Davis’s division. Walter survived the deadly fighting during the morning of December 31, 1862, that cost his regiment 80 casualties. Following their victory at Stones River, the Union army remained in Murfreesboro until mid‑1863. After two years of service, On April 22, 1863, Private Wyker joined his company on the picket line and perished as a result of an accidental discharge. Walter C. Wyker was laid to rest in the Stones River National Cemetery in plot A-1. |