{⋆★⋆} MG Whiting, William Henry Chase

William Henry Chase Whiting

Born: March 22, 1824
General Whiting.jpg


Birth Place: Biloxi, Mississippi

Father: Lt. Colonel Levi Whiting 1790 – 1852
(Buried: Hillside Cemetery, Naugatuck, Connecticut)​

Mother: Mary Ann Whiting

Wife: Katherine Davis 1836 – 1901
(Buried: Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington, North Carolina)​

Education:

1845: Graduated from West Point Military Academy – (1st in class)​

Occupation before War:

1845 – 1853: 2nd Lt. United States Army, Corps of Engineers​
1845 – 1848: Assistant Engineer for Pensacola, Florida Harbor​
1848 – 1850: Engineer for U.S. Army, Military Department of Texas​
1850 – 1852: Assistant Engineer for Pensacola Florida Harbor​
1852: Assistant Engineer in building of Fort Carroll in Maryland​
1852: Assistant Engineer for Surveys & Harbor Improvements in Texas​
1853 – 1858: 1st Lt. United States Army, Corps of Engineers​
1853 – 1855: Assistant Engineer for San Francisco, California Harbor​
1854 – 1856: Member board of Engineers for Pacific Coast Defenses​
1856 – 1857: Superintendent Engineer for Forts Caswell and Macon​
1857 – 1861: Engineer for improvements on St. John’s River​
1858 – 1861: Engineer for repairs on Fort Jackson and Fort Pulaski​
1858 – 1861: Engineer for improvements on Savanah River​
1858 – 1861: Captain of United States Army, Corps of Engineers​
1861: Resigned from United States Army on February 20th

Civil War Career:

1861: Major and Engineer in Confederate Engineers​
1861: Chief Engineer for the Army of the Shenandoah 1st Bull Run​
1861 – 1864: Brigadier General of Confederate Army Infantry​
1862: Participated in the Battle of Seven Pines​
1862: Participated in the Second Valley Campaign​
1862: Participated in the Peninsula Campaign​
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1862: Participated in the Seven Days Campaign​
1862 – 1864: Commander of Military District of Wilmington, North Carolina​
1864 – 1865: Major General of Confederate Army Infantry​
1864: Participated in the Defenses of Petersburg, Virginia​
1865: Wounded and captured during 2nd Battle of Fort Fisher​

Died: March 10, 1865

Place of Death: Fort Columbus on Governor's Island, New York

Age at time of Death: 40 years old

Cause of Death: Dysentery

Burial Place: Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington, North Carolina

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Interesting to see this profile of WHC Whiting.

I've been researching some details about the CW in Central and Eastern North Carolina, particularly trying to understand the presence of the Union bases at New Bern, (Little) Washington, and Plymouth and their threat to the security of the capital city of Raleigh. In doing that research, I've reviewed some communications between Maj Gen Whiting and Gov Zebulon B. Vance, including the telegram shown below. Just thought it might be of interest. This was in connection with a Federal Cavalry raid to the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad that resulted in some destruction and temporary disruption of transport.

WhitingTelegram_Vance_1.jpg



WhitingTelegram_Vance_2.jpg


Source: North Carolina Archives, Zebulon B. Vance papers

Roy B.
 
Interesting to see this profile of WHC Whiting.

I've been researching some details about the CW in Central and Eastern North Carolina, particularly trying to understand the presence of the Union bases at New Bern, (Little) Washington, and Plymouth and their threat to the security of the capital city of Raleigh. In doing that research, I've reviewed some communications between Maj Gen Whiting and Gov Zebulon B. Vance, including the telegram shown below. Just thought it might be of interest. This was in connection with a Federal Cavalry raid to the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad that resulted in some destruction and temporary disruption of transport.

View attachment 355953


View attachment 355954

Source: North Carolina Archives, Zebulon B. Vance papers

Roy B.

Good stuff. Thank you
 
Memoir W.H.C. Whiting by C. B. Denson

1647965749404.png


Biographical sketch of Confederate Major General William Henry Chase Whiting (W.H.C. Whiting), who was mortally wounded when Fort Fisher, NC fell. Indexed.


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Whiting was originally buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn NY until 1900 when his wife, Kate Walker Whiting relocated his remains to Wilmington.
 

An outstanding student and graduate of English High School of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, by age 12 and Georgetown College (now University) in Washington, D.C., by age 16, Whiting, the son of Levi Whiting, a respected artillery officer, and Mary A. Whiting, continued to impress his instructors at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he graduated first in the class of 1845.

Appointed second lieutenant of engineers, Whiting was involved in constructing seacoast defenses in Maryland and Florida and surveying military routes and frontier forts in west Texas. Whiting served at Fort Davis, Texas. He was the first to survey the Big Bend area for the U.S. Army. Promoted to first lieutenant in 1853, Whiting was sent west, erecting harbor fortifications in San Francisco, California, and serving on the board of engineers for Pacific coast defenses until 1856. Lt. Whiting spent the five years before the Civil War improving rivers, canals, and harbors in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He was promoted to captain, corps of engineers, in 1858.

Civil War

Captain Whiting resigned his commission February 20, 1861, in the weeks before Fort Sumter, and was appointed major of engineers, Confederate States Army. After improving defenses of Charleston harbor, Whiting served under Major General Joseph E. Johnston as chief engineer of the Army of the Shenandoah and at the First Battle of Bull Run. Promoted to brigadier general in August 1861, Whiting later commanded a division at Seven Pines, rapidly redeploying to support Stonewall Jackson in his second Valley Campaign, and returning by rail to the Peninsula with his division to fight in the battles at Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill.

Assigned command of the more peaceful military district of Wilmington, North Carolina, Whiting remained in that post, briefly taking over Petersburg defenses as a major general in May 1864. By the beginning of 1865, Whiting found himself defending the district against forces under Maj. Gen. Alfred Howe Terry. Wounded and captured at Fort Fisher, from his prison cell Whiting requested investigation of his superior, General Braxton Bragg's actions. Whiting was angry that Bragg failed to use a division under Maj. Gen. Robert Hoke to attack the Federal rear while the fort was under assault.

Taken prisoner with the rest of fort's defenders, and weakened by war service and the leg injury suffered at Fort Fisher, Whiting died of dysentery at the Union military hospital at Fort Columbus, on Governors Island in New York harbor on March 10, 1865. Whiting was buried a few miles away at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. His widow, Kate, had his body exhumed in 1900 and moved to Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Whiting's brother Jasper died of illness in Confederate service, and brother Robert was in charge of Green-Wood Cemetery, the one which Whiting was originally interred, during the 1860s.


[I have a lot of detailed stuff on Whiting in my files, however it is mostly on his defense of the district and Wilmington's forts.]
 
Memoir W.H.C. Whiting by C. B. Denson

View attachment 435711

Biographical sketch of Confederate Major General William Henry Chase Whiting (W.H.C. Whiting), who was mortally wounded when Fort Fisher, NC fell. Indexed.


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
Is this the same as Denson's An address delivered in Raleigh, N.C. on Memorial Day, May 10, 1895: Containing a memoir of the late Major-General William Henry Chase Whiting of the Confederate ... request of the Ladies' Memorial Association ?
 
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