Walsh was born in
Ballingarry, County Limerick,
Ireland. With his parents he emigrated in 1852 to
Charleston, South Carolina, where he was apprenticed to a printer. While working at this trade he attended night school and eventually entered Georgetown College (now
Georgetown University) in
Washington, D.C., in 1859, where he remained until the
American Civil War. In 1861, Walsh returned to Charleston, to fight for the
Confederacy. He joined the state militia as a lieutenant of the Meagher Guards of the First Regiment, Carolina Rifle Militia. In 1862 he moved to
Augusta, Georgia where he was an editor at the
Augusta Chronicle and other papers. After the war, he was elected as
State Representative in the
Georgia General Assembly, serving as a Democrat, from 1872 until 1876. In 1884, he was elected as delegate-at-large to the Democratic National Convention. He also served as a member of the World's Columbian Fair Commission. In 1894, the
Governor of Georgia appointed Walsh to fill an unexpired term in the
United States Senate. He served as a
Democratic senator, April 2, 1894 until March 3, 1895. In 1866 he married Anna Isabella McDonnald, born in Edgefield County, South Carolina, the daughter of John E. McDonnald, a native of Charleston, S.C., and for years a merchant of that city. Her mother was a native of London, England, and when about ten years of age immigrated to the United States and settled in Cambridge. Walsh was later elected mayor of
Augusta, and served from 1897 until his death on March 19, 1899. Walsh was buried in City Cemetery. ==See also==