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Judge Walter Alexander Montgomery died at his home in Raleigh, N. C., on November 26, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He was born February 17, 1845, in Warrenton, N. C., the son of Thomas A. Montgomery, for many years a merchant of that town, and his first wife Darien Cheek, a member of one of the largest family connections of that section of the State.

While in preperation for his university course, at the age of sixteen, young Montgomery volunteered for cavalry service in the Confederate army; being rejected because of physical disability, he reenlisted as a private in Company F, of the Second North Carolina Infantry, known, after May, 1862, as the Twelfth North Carolina. As private, sergeant, and lieutenant, he participated in all the great battles of the Army of Northern Virginia in which his command was engaged, from Hanover Courthouse, in May, 1862, to the surrender at Appomattox, where he was paroled. He was twice wounded, at Chancellorsville and the firsts day's fight at Gettysburg.

Returning to Warrenton, he resumed his studies, devoting himself especially to the classics, English literature, and history, as preperation for his legal studies. After securing his license in 1867, he practiced that profession until his appointement, in 1895, as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He retired from the bench in 1905 and was appointed Standing Master for the Eastern District of the United States Court; and he also devoted himself to literary study and historical research. He was especially versed in the causes leading up to its civil and military policies, the formation of the Southern Confederacy, and the part taken therein by his native State. As an active member of the State Literary and Historical Association, his contributions were marked by strict accuracy, clear reasoning, and scholarly style. He was noted as an orator, and especially in demand on Confederate memorial occasions, while his memory of men and events of more than sixty years of the State's history was remarkable and rendered him one of the most interesting of his day.

Judge Montgomery held the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of North Carolina.