In 1834, the Walton family moved to Carroll County, newly created from Indian lands in the Choctaw Session.

[2] When he was seventeen, Walton was appointed deputy district clerk and in about two years saved enough money to go to the University of Virginia, where he studied law.

[2] After his licensing, Walton and George, his only surviving brother, decided to sell their father's land and move to Austin, Texas.

Despondent, young Walton started on his way out of Mississippi, but, after a day or two, came back to Carrollton to ask again, resulting in a secret engagement.

[1] Walton received a letter from Lettie early in the winter telling him to come for her, that she would marry him with or without her father's consent.

[3] With the start of the Civil War, the courts in Texas ceased operation and Walton took work as Governor Francis Lubbock's private secretary.

On March 2, 1862, believing he had a duty to fight against the United States, Walton enlisted in the Confederate Army.

Walton was later promoted to major and attached to the staff of Lt. Gen. Theophilus H. Holmes, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, and stationed at Little Rock, Arkansas.

Walton left the army without leave when he learned his wife was severely ill, following the birth of their daughter, Sarah, on October 24, 1864.

Walton sent his family to live with his in-laws in Mississippi, amidst fears of Union occupation during Reconstruction.

DeNormandie, who was absent from the South during the war and thus allowed to practice, formed a partnership, specializing in land claims.

[4] In 1867, the Reconstruction Acts, which were passed over President Andrew Johnson's veto, effectively shut down the governments of most of the southern states and removed Confederate veterans from elected office.

The Democratic administration of James W. Throckmorton, of which Walton was a part, was replaced with a Republican government under Elisha M. Pease and Texas came under military occupation.

[5] Walton served as the chairman of the state Democratic executive committee from 1866 to 1872, during Reconstruction and the unpopular tenure of Republican Governor Edmund J. Davis.

Walton helped form a coalition of conservative and moderate elements to combat the electoral power of the Radical Republicans and retake control of the state government.

They threw up their hats, laughed, cried, caught me in their arms, hugged me and at one time, I was really afraid they would kill me in their furious enthusiasm over my act ... ... it was a grand scene.

Resolutions by the Travis County Bar Association ordered that his portrait, "which adorns the District Courtroom, be draped in mourning".