Edward Augustine Walker was born in Bloomfield, Maine, on November 3, 1838. In 1860 he joined family living in Clearwater, Wright County, Minnesota. He was mustered into Company D of the First Minnesota Volunteer Regiment as a private on May 21, 1861. He served in several campaigns, including the Battle of Gettysburg, before being mustered out with the rank of corporal on May 5, 1864. He resided in Minneapolis after the war. He and his brother ran a business there until 1876, when they relocated it to Philadelphia. In 1921 Walker returned to Clearwater and soon after entered the Minnesota Soldiers Home in Minneapolis, where he died on March 16, 1923. He is buried in Clearwater's Acacia Cemetery. He never married and was survived by a sister, Mrs. Lucy Webster, of Clearwater.

Both letters are written to George W. Knight, of Massachusetts. The first letter, written on June 25, 1861, from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, briefly details the company's movement to Harrisburg. Initially, the company had been ordered to Fort Abercrombie, Dakota Territory, and departed on June 10, but it was recalled with orders to go to Washington, D.C. instead. The company left Fort Snelling on Saturday, June 22, and arrived in Harrisburg on Tuesday, June 25, whence Walker wrote Knight. Early the next morning, the company left for Baltimore via train, where (as Walker had anticipated) the company first encountered citizens unsympathetic to the Union Army's cause.

The second letter, written on September 9, 1863, from Alexandria, Virginia, details Walker's voyage from New York City aboard a transport steamer and his opinions of Alexandria. The company had been in Brooklyn (August 23-September 6) to prevent the possible recurrence of draft riots, which had occurred the previous July. The company left Brooklyn on September 6 and arrived in Alexandria, Virginia, two days later before leaving there on September 12.