1st Lieutenant Walter C. Maloney, Jr. was counted among the cultivated and wealthy citizens of Key West, nearly all of whom were strongly pro-Southern. Among these were Senator Stephen R. Mallory, Mr. Peter Crusoe, Mr. (and soon to be Captain) Henry Mulrennan, and Mr. William H. Ward, the latter the editor of a newspaper called the Key of the Gulf.

Maloney, in the company of a Mr. Pacetti, slipped past the guard boat in the harbor in a small boat and made for Tampa.

He enlisted in Captain Henry Mulrennan’s Florida Volunteers Coast Guards on November 27, 1861 as a 2nd Lieutenant; he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant on January 31, 1862. He served with this organization until April 25th, 1862.

He was enlisted in Captain Smith’s Company (Key West Avengers), 7th Florida Infantry Regiment on April 25th, 1862 by Major R. B. Thomas at Tampa, Hillsborough County, Florida for 3 years or the war. His name appears on a Register containing Rosters of Commissioned Officers, Provisional Army Confederate States as being appointed 1st Lieutenant on April 24, 1862.

He is reported as present on all company rolls from that point until the period 7-28 February 1862, where he is reported absent on detached duty to the city police at Knoxville, Tennessee since December 1862. From that point until October 26th, 1864 he is again reported present on all rolls.

His name appears on a Register containing Rosters of Commissioned Officers, Provisional Army Confederate States as having resigned his commission as 1st Lieutenant on October 26th, 1864. After his resignation, he joined the Washington Siege Artillery stationed near Adams Run, South Carolina.

After the war, he served as the Revenue Collector for Monroe County, Florida (1879-1881); Mayor of Key West, Florida (1889-1891); and publisher of the “Key West Dispatch” He died at Key West, Florida on June 25, 1894.

Walter C Maloney