George Walton Knight (May 7, 1823 – April 19, 1869) was a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War and a captain in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was also a scholar, an educator and a lawyer.
Early life Knight was born in 1823 in Atlanta, Georgia. His father was Walton Knight. George Walton, one of his paternal descendants, was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
Career Knight founded Atlanta Business College, the city's first such establishment.
In 1846, he was a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War. Sixteen years later, during the American Civil War, he was elected captain of Company G of the 56th Regiment of Georgia Volunteers. He resigned just over a year later due to ill health.
Personal life Knight married twice. His second wife was Clara Corinne Daniel, who became a noted teacher in the Atlanta public schools system. They had two known children: historian Lucian in 1868 and Marie the following year. Marie died at the age of 24.
Death
Knight died in 1869, aged 45, in Atlanta. He was interred in that city's Oakland Cemetery. He left an 18-year-old widow with two infants, whose guardianship passed to a maternal uncle, Dr. John B. Daniel, a businessman of Atlanta, and a devout Presbyterian elder.
His widow was buried beside him upon her death in 1904.
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