Waller Redd Staples

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Walter Redd Staples (February 24, 1826 – August 20, 1897) was a Congressman serving the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War.

Staples was born in Patrick County, Virginia. He attended the University of North Carolina for two years and then entered the College of William and Mary from which he graduated in 1845. After graduation, he moved to Montgomery County, Virginia to begin the practice of law.

In 1853-54, he was a member of the state legislature and, in 1862, became a member of the Confederate House of Representatives. He was re-elected in 1863 and served until the end of the war when he resumed his law practice in Montgomery County.

After Virginia's secession from the Union and acceptance into the Confederate States, he represented Virginia in the First Confederate Congress and the Second Confederate Congress.

In February, 1870, he was elected to the Supreme Court of Appeals but, in 1882, the Readjuster Party controlled the state and none of the judges on the Court of Appeals were re-elected. Judge Staples served as a member of the committee to revise the civil and criminal laws of Virginia in 1884.