FROM ELIZABETH STANLEY NEWTON LUSSON'S DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION APPLICATION:
Colonel John Armistead is the ancestor who assisted in establishingAmerican Independcne, while acting in the capacity of Colonel in theRevolutionary Army. He was Colonel in the continental Army. He marriedLucy, daughter of Colonel John Baylor, March 17, 1764. "All the sons ofthis marriage where inbued with martial spirit. One of the sons, my grandfather, Gen. Walker Keith Armistead, was one of the first graduatesof West Point; passed successfully through all gradation of office fromLieutenant to that of General, was commanding General during part of the Seminole War;- Commanded at Fortress Monroe during the war of 1812, andwould havebeen the commanding General in the Mexican War but for hisdeath, which occurred the night he received his appointment. His deathpassed the rank to Gen. Taylor."
"The above mentioned Armisteads are of the "Armisteads of Hesse," who, according to Bishop Meade, and the oldVestry books were in Virginia from before the year 1677."
FROM NOTES ON FAMILY HISTORY -- TRADITION AND FACT, AS REMEBERED BY ADELE M. M AYNARD. -- 1934
My great-grandfather, Gen. Walker Keith Armistead, was one of the first four graduates from West Point; an oil portrait of him hangs in the West Point Military Academy - I believe in the LIbrary. He fought inthe Seminole War, in Florida, and at the outbreak of the war with Mexico was appointed Gen. in Chief of the U. S. army in Mexico, but died of a heart attack the day he received the dispatches. Gen. Zachary Taylor was, I believe, appointed in his place. His son, Lewis Armistead (a young Lieutenant at that time) distinguished himself at the taking of a fortress at Chapultepec. Afterwards when in command of a small fort on the Indian frontier, a large and of hostile Indians rode up to the Chief, took hold of his horse's forelock and turned him around, motioning forthe Indians to leave; they wer apparently so surprised that they didso. This was told my mother by a man (I think County Clerk) here in San Jose who was a soldier in the for at the time; - Louis Spitzer.
During the Civil War as Gen. Lewis Armistead, he led Pickett's Division at Gettysburg -- leading his men up a hill to take the Unionbatteries; he carried his hat on the point of his sword in order thathis men might distinguish him and follow him. He was badly wounded and carried by Union soldiers into the tent of Gen. Hancock (a close friend) where he died. Years before the Civil War, his young wife had died, leaving an infant son. My mother's father Maj. W. I. Newton was stationed at Fort Washita, Indian Terriotroy (now Oklahoma), with himwas the wife and infant daughter (my mother) Elizabeth Stanley; young Capt. Armistead brought his infant son to his sister -- the brother,Armistead Newton, was talented and Brilliant, but dissipated and worthless; he disappeared many years (about 50) ago; we have neverheard what became of him, but he must be dead. The sister, Cornelia Love Newton, eloped with a wild young man, a Lieut. in the U. S. army, a gambler and a drunkard; she died, leaving two sons, Newton and James Gore; Newton is in a Sanitarium in southern California, the probably victim of his own and his father's sins; James is in San Francisco (1289 2nd Avenue) he has two sons and a daughter.
