Gilbert Carleton Walker: Virginia's Redeemer Governor

This is the biography of the carpetbagger, Gilbert Carleton Walker, whose historical importance lies in his election as Virginia’s Redeemer Governor. He was a middle-of-the-roader acceptable to the Republican Congress, upon whom all factions in Virginia politics could unite, and under his aegis the transition from “Military District Number 1” to renewed statehood was swiftly an fairly painlessly accomplished.

Although his administration was begun so promisingly, it was marred by the inauguration of two disastrous policies: the funding of the unpayable state debt and the sale of the potentially valuable state-owned railroad stock to private investors at bargain rates.