William Walter Leake (April 22, 1833 – January 20, 1912)[3] was an officer in the Confederate States Army in the American Civil War.

He was also an attorney, a member of the Louisiana State Senate, a circuit court judge, a bank president, and a newspaper publisher.

He is best known for his role in burying a Union Navy officer in Louisiana, an event now commemorated as "The Day the War Stopped".

After a poorly managed river crossing and other incidents, the regiment's officers questioned Scott's leadership, accusing him of incompetence and reckless endangerment of his men.

He subsequently raised another company of cavalry that served as part of Cochrane's Brigade in the Army of Tennessee until the end of the war.

[7] In June 1863, while Leake was home on furlough, a Union navy commander who was part of the West Gulf Blockading Squadron on the Mississippi River near St. Francisville died on board his ship.

A truce was arranged so that the Union officers could bring his body ashore, attend the funeral, and return to their ship to resume their blockade.

Leake was buried near Hart, and the two former enemies (who never met in life) are commemorated with a single marble slab, placed in 1955 by the Grand Lodge of the state of Louisiana and "dedicated to the universality of Freemasonry.