WILLIAM B. SPENCER, of Vidalia, was born in Catahoula Parish, Louisiana, February 5, 1835; received a classical education, graduating at Centenary College, and in the Law Department of the University of Louisiana; was admitted to the bar in 1857, and practised at Harrisonburg, Louisiana, until 1861; entered the Confederate Army as Captain of Infantry, and served throughout the war; resumed the practice of law, after the war, at Vidalia, Concordia Parish, Louisiana; never held any public office until he was elected to the Forty- fourth Congress as a Democrat, receiving a majority of 1,315 votes over Frank Morey, Republican. The returning  board of Louisiana, however, returned Morey as elected, and he held the seat until May 3l, 1876, when the House by resolution declared Spencer to have been duly elected, and he was accordingly sworn in June 8, 1876.

Samuel D. S. Walker, of Columbia, a veteran of the army of Northern Virginia and one of the few survivors of the " Louisiana Tigers." famous among the fighters at First Manassas, was born in Catahoula parish, La., January 30, 1841. He became a student at Centenary college in 1859, but left his studies in April, 1861, to enlist in a cavalry company, which was mustered in, however, as infantry, at Camp Moore, becoming Company D of Maj. Robert C. Wheat's First Special battalion. Going to Virginia he fought on the morning of July 21, 1861, in the thin line of devoted Confederates who withheld the flank attack of the Federals before Jackson's "stone wall" was in position to receive the enemy. No command can claim more credit for the victory of First Manassas than Bob Wheat's Louisiana Tigers. During the following winter his company was transferred to St. Paul's battalion, which served as special guard for the Washington artillery battalion, and with this command he fought at Williamsburg, May 5, 1862. Next he participated in the battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days' campaign before Richmond. At this time other companies were added to St. Paul's battalion to form the Fifteenth regiment, and Mr. Walker was made a sergeant of his company, numbered I in the new regiment. Subsequently he was promoted to orderly-sergeant. With the Fifteenth, in the Second Louisiana brigade, he served in the campaigns of Stonewall Jackson which followed, including the battles of Cedar Mountain, Second Manassas, Harper's Ferry, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. In Ewell's corps he fought at Gettysburg, Payne's Farm, the Wilderness and Spottsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor, and under Jubal Early he took part in the long march from Lynchburg down the Shenandoah valley and through Maryland to Washington, defeating Lew Wallace at Monocacy, and the hard fighting against Sheridan in the valley. During the first months of 1865 he was on duty in the trenches at Petersburg, and finally he shared the last march of Lee's army and surrendered at Appomattox Court House. It will be observed that Sergeant Walker's record is one of many battles, which no attempt is made here to enumerate. He was wounded at Winchester, Spottsylvania and before Richmond, but was never long disabled. A year after his return home he was elected recorder of his native parish. Two years later he embarked in the newspaper business, in which he is still engaged with much success. In 1879 he was married to Paralie J. Pierce, and they have four children living.