Albert Walz

Name Albert "Al" Walz Born 1843 (34) Role Guide/Scout Group PCs Status PC (Active)

Actor: Robert Duvall

Concept

Grizzled Scout

Tropes

Army Scout; Made of Iron

Details

• During his various battles and fights over the course of his life, Walz received 28 wounds.

Causa Vitæ

Can't leave this world without seeing his mother settled and taken care of.

Background

27 Feb 1843: Born in Mingolsheim, Baden as the 13th of 14 children.

16 Sep 1845: Father, Johannes, died.

Mar-Apr 1851: Three years after the "Badian Revolution", his mother Eva Katharina née Fischer, emigrated with her still living eight children (six had already died) to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The family moved to Minnesota several years later.

4 Mar 1862: Enlisted in Company B, 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry during the American Civil War. He fought in several key engagements, including Battle of Antietam, Battle of Fredericksburg, Battle of Chancellorsville, Battle of Gettysburg.

2 Jul 1863: Severely wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg, at Cemetery Ridge.

1868-1871: After the war, became a prospector in California, Nevada, and in Arizona Territory, where he managed a ranch.

Jul 1871: General George Stoneman hired Walz as Chief of Scouts and he served for much of the Apache Wars. He participated in Crook's Tonto (Apache) campaign (1871–73), Battle of Cibecue Creek, and Battle of Big Dry Wash. When the Camp Verde reservation was closed, Walz was told to move Yavapais and Tonto Apaches to the San Carlos Reservation in the middle of winter. He remained employed there and participated in several engagements with Apache groups that had left the reservation.

24 Oct 1874: The Arizona Miner reported, "Al Walz, Sergeant Stauffer and a mixed command of white and red soldiers are in the hills of Verde looking for some erring Apaches, whom they will be apt to find." Three days later, Walz and Sgt. Rudolph Stauffer found the Apaches that had escaped the reservation at Cave Creek and fought them. Josephine Earp wrote that when she arrived in Arizona, she learned that "some renegade Yuma-Apaches had escaped from the reservation to which they had been consigned and had returned to their old haunts on the war-path" and that Walz was tracking the escaped Apache. She said Walz and his scouts led her stagecoach and its passengers to a nearby adobe ranch house where they remained until the Indians were captured.

Feb-May 1877: Acted as a guide for Pima County Marshal Wiley Standefer, who was pursuing outlaws in the region.

Jun 1877: Returned to Babylon to receive his mother, Eva, who has come west from Minnesota. She tells Al that she is considering opening a boarding house in the town.

Notes

• Based on Duvall's portrayal of historical-figure Al Sieber in Geronimo: An American Legend