Person:Maria Walker (60)

FLEET, Alexander Frederick, educator, was born in King and Queen county, Va., in 1843 ; son of Dr. Benjamin and Maria Louisa (Wacker) Fleet. His father, Dr. Benjamin Fleet, born Jan. 25, 1818, and died March 8, 1865, was a physician and magistrate in King and Queen county, state of Virginia. His first ancestor in America was Capt. Henry Fleet, who came to Virginia about 1621, and was a member of the Maryland legislature and of the Virginia house of burgesses. He received his education at Fleetwood and Aberdeen academies, Va., and -at the University of Virginia, which he left in 1861 to enter the military service of the Confederate states. He remained in the service throughout the entire period of the war, and at its close he returned to the university, where he studied, 1865-67. He was a teacher at Kemnore school, Fredericksburg, Va., 1867-68; and had charge of the department of Greek in the William Jewell college 1868-73. He also served as chairman of the faculty. He was president of the Baptist female college at Lexington, Mo., 1873-79; was professor of Greek in the Missouri state university, Columbia, Mo., 1879-90, and in 1890 founded and became superintendent of the Missouri military academy at Mexico, Mo. In 1891 he was president of the Missouri state teachers association. In 1896, upon the destruction by fire of the Missouri military academy, he transferred his school to Culver, Ind., and united with the Culver military academy, of which he had twice been superintendent. This school in 1900 had an enrollment of 220 cadets.

This from Col. Fleet of Culver: "Thos. Walker, ancestor of the distinguished Dr. Thos. Walker, and Riveses of Albemarle (see Thomas Walker (explorer)), and Gov. Thos. Walker Gilmer (see Thomas Walker Gilmer), was from K. & Q." - Semple, John and James S., were sons of Rev. James Semple of England. John settled in King and Queen, marrying a Miss Walker. There son, Robert B.A. Croghan[sic] Semple[recte] married Lucy Clark, and their son, Major Croghan, then a mere youth, held the fort at Sandusky against Gen. Proctor (see Henry Procter (British Army officer)) with a large force of Indians and whites. He also distinguished himself at Tippecanoe (see Battle of Tippecanoe).

The Fleets of Tidewater Virginia, living near Richmond in their plantation home Green Mount, were close to many of the great events of the Civil War. Their story, told here in a journal and letters by several members of the family, occupies a unique place among the numerous war memoirs of the South.

Combining soldier and civilian life with age and youth, Green Mount gives an unusually complete account of the effects of war upon the central southern plantocracy and of the general morale of the South from Lincoln's election to the end of the Confederacy. In the humane and articulate Fleet papers, one may find the best of the southern tradition

The Evergreen Society was a group formed by the girl students attending Green Mount Home School for Young Ladies in the Green Mount home of Maria Fleet and her daughters Lou, Bessie and Florence who served as teachers. Green Mount is in King and Queen County, Virginia. Books of interest are Green Mount and Green Mount after the War. (both by Fleet)

Letters, 1862, from Maria Louisa Wacker Fleet (1822–1900) at Green Mount in King and Queen County, Virginia, to her son Alexander Frederick Fleet (1843–1911) while he was serving with Company I (Jackson Grays) of the 26th Virginia Infantry at Gloucester Point. Topics include her gratification at receiving his letters, visits with family and friends, inquiries regarding his health, troop movements in the area, business activities of her husband Dr. Benjamin Fleet (1818–1865), military confiscation of the family's property, her caring for ill soldiers at the family home, and her willingness to do more to aid in the war effort