William Denison Whipple

Bvt. Maj. Gen. William Denison Whipple (August 2, 1826 – April 1, 1902) was an officer of the U.S. Army who fought against the native Americans in the New Mexico Territory and served the Union during the American Civil War.

Biography Whipple was born in Nelson, New York on August 2, 1826, to Jerusha Whipple. He entered West Point in 1847 before graduating on July 1, 1851, and was assigned to the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment as a second lieutenant. During his time there he would be treated for phlegmon three times, catarrhs twice, diarrhea twice, and several other diseases. He graduated near the bottom of his class, but would go on to have a prominent career.

New Mexico Territory In the spring of 1852, Whipple marched a detachment of recruits from Newport Barracks to Jefferson Barracks, joining a larger detachment and taking a steamer to Fort Leavenworth before going on to join the 3rd regiment in the New Mexico Territory. while serving in the New Mexico Territory.

American Civil War In 1860, Whipple's regiment was ordered to Texas where he would serve as a quartermaster in Indianola. He would remain there until the Twiggs agreement the following year. Whipple, still in Indianola, would try to get the troops under his command back to the North, however, they were captured at their post in by Van Dorn due to delays by other officers and the Confederates seizing schooners hired by Whipple to take the troops back North.

Whipple would escape captivity and make his was to New Orleans. He traveled under an assumed identity with a Confederate regiment, who he gleaned information from, until reaching Richmond after which he went to Washington, D.C., and turned himself over to the quartermaster-general.

The next assignment Whipple received was to organize the staffs of Major General John A. Dix in Baltimore and General John Wool in Ft. Monroe. The appointment would expire due to lack of confirmation, but he would prevent a draft riot in Philadelphia while commanding the Lehigh District of Pennsylvania. He would also quelled violence from a clandestine organization of coal miners called the Molly Maguires through his vigilance. During this period he would be reappointed and confirmed to the rank of Brigadier General in September 1864 and be present at the Battle of Missionary Ridge, the Nashville Campaign, the Chattanooga Campaign, and the Siege of Atlanta, among others.

Post Civil War Following the Civil War, Whipple continued to serve in the United States Army Adjutant General's Corps for a variety of divisions and departments beginning in 1878, eventually receiving the rank of colonel in 1887, before retiring in August 1890.

Portrait of Marion Whipple Deering painted by John Singer Sargent (ca. 1888) Their daughter Marion would marry Charles Deering in 1883. Walter became a medical student in Manhattan, but died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly before his brother Herbert graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in June 1885.

Whipple would contract a case of pneumonia which he, after several days, would die of on April 1, 1902, at the New York Hospital in New York City, where he had settled down. He was later buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Family Only two of Whipple's children survived him. Herbert would become a captain in the 3rd U.S. Cavalry, retiring because of disability in September 1905. He returned to duty as a recruiting officer, served as a major in the Quartermaster Corps during World War I and died in June 1923 while serving as a professor of military science and tactics at the College of the City of New York.