Walter Hampden Overton

Biography

Walter Hampden Overton (1788–1845) was a U.S. Representative representing Louisiana's 3rd congressional district. He was born near Louisa Court House, Virginia in 1788 and moved in infancy with his father to North Carolina, and then to Tennessee in 1801. Overton attended the common schools and entered the U.S. Army in 1808, and was promoted through the ranks to major in the Third Rifles on February 21, 1814. Major Overton was brevetted a lieutenant colonel on December 23, 1814, for actions at the Battle of New Orleans and transferred to the Artillery Corps in May, 1815 before resigning his commission on October 31, 1815. Later, he was commissioned a major general of militia by the Louisiana Legislature. Overton settled near Alexandria, Louisiana in Rapides Parish and served as a member of courthouse building commission in 1820 and 1821, a member of the Commission on Navigation of Bayou Rapides in 1824. Overton was elected as a Jacksonian Democrat to the Twenty-first Congress (March 4, 1829-March 3, 1831). He served one term and was not a candidate for renomination in 1830. He returned to his plantation near Alexandria, Louisiana where he died on December 24, 1845. He was buried in McNutt Hill Cemetery in Rapides Parish..