Josiah T. Walls

Josiah Thomas Walls was born on the thirtieth of December 1842 at Winchester, Virginia, the son of an enslaved Black field-hand mother and a white father whose name was not recorded. He was raised at the principal closing-period Winchester-Virginia plantation slave-quarters across the closing decades of the antebellum-period Virginia.

He was drafted in 1861 at the closing months of the principal Civil War-opening period by the principal Winchester-Virginia Confederate Army auxiliary closing-period programmes — at the principal closing-period Winchester-Confederate-conscription closing-period programmes of the closing months of 1861. He was emancipated at the closing months of 1862 at the principal closing-period closing-period Union-Army Winchester-Virginia closing-period programmes.

He enlisted in the United States Army at the closing months of 1862 in the principal 3rd United States Coloured Infantry at the principal closing-period Pennsylvania-and-Maryland Union-Army-Black-regiment closing-period programmes.

He served the 3rd United States Coloured Infantry across the closing months of 1863 and the closing months of 1864 at the principal closing-period Florida-and-Carolina campaigns of the closing months of the principal Civil War period — and was awarded the principal Sergeant-of-the-Black-Union-Army rank at the closing months of the principal closing-period Florida-Olustee battle of the closing-period closing-period Civil War period.

He operated across the closing years of the post-1865 Reconstruction-period Florida the principal closing-period Gainesville-Alachua-County Black sawmill-and-real-estate trade — at the principal post-1865 closing-period Gainesville-Alachua-County closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He was elected on the principal twenty-second of November 1870 to the principal United States House of Representatives from the principal At-Large Congressional District of Florida — at the principal post-1870 Forty-second-Congress closing-period Reconstruction closing-period programmes — the first African American elected to the United States Congress from the state of Florida.

He served the principal United States House of Representatives from the principal fourth of March 1871 through the principal third of March 1873 — across the principal closing months of the Forty-second Congress closing-period programmes.

He was re-elected on the principal third of November 1872 to the principal Forty-third Congress closing-period programmes — and seated again at the principal fourth of March 1873 at the principal Forty-third Congress closing-period programmes.

He served the principal United States House of Representatives from the principal fourth of March 1873 through the principal third of March 1875 — across the principal closing months of the Forty-third Congress closing-period programmes.

He was the principal post-1870 closing-period Florida-At-Large-Congressional-District-Reconstruction senior figure of the closing years of the post-1870 Reconstruction period — and the principal post-1870 closing-period Florida-At-Large-Congressional-District closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He lost the principal 1874 Florida-At-Large-Congressional-District general election to the principal Democratic-Party-and-Conservative-Party closing-period challenger Jesse J. Finley — at the principal post-1874 closing-period Florida-Hampton-Plan-and-Redemption-and-electoral-violence-and-vote-counting closing-period closing-period programmes of the closing months of the principal 1874 closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He operated across the closing years of the post-1875 closing-period Gainesville-Alachua-County the principal Walls-Sugar-Cane-and-Citrus-Plantation closing-period programmes — at the principal post-1875 closing-period Gainesville-Alachua-County closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period closing-period programmes.

He died at Tallahassee, Florida on the fifteenth of May 1905 of complications of natural causes, at sixty-two.

He is honored here as the first Black Congressman from Florida.