John Henry Ellsworth Whitney

Age 20 years, an artist and wood engraver, he enlisted on 23 April 1861 at New York City and mustered-in as Corporal, Company B, 9th New York Infantry on May 4 to serve two years. He was promoted to Sergeant, date not given.

In his after-action report, Colonel Kimball said "I cannot close this report without calling your special attention to ... Sergeants Dews, Whitney (wounded), and Schmidt; Corporals Farrell (wounded) Cornell and Roberts, Company B..." Sergeant Whitney had been wounded in the left illium (pelvic bone) in action at Antietam on 17 September 1862.

He was treated at the Locust Spring field hospital near Keedysville, the Smoketown Hospital near the battlefield, then in US Army General Hospital #1 in Frederick, MD. He was discharged for disability on 4 June 1863 and was receiving an Invalid's Pension by May 1864.

He wrote a history of the regiment The Hawkins Zouaves (Ninth N. Y. V.): their battles and marches, published in 1866 and was appointed Captain of Company B, 1st Regiment, New York State National Guard, organized by members of Hawkins Zouaves. He was an instructor at the Cooper Union in Manhattan and by 1880 was living in Chappaqua, NY and was an engraver for Harper's Magazine. He died of septicemia - blood poisoning - in 1891, said to be from his Antietam wound nearly 30 years before, which had never really healed.

His basic service from the State of New York,1 as John R. Whitney. Wound and hospital details from Nelson.2 Personal details from family genealogists and his bio sketch from the Green-Wood Cemetery. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

He married Emily Louisa Calhoun (1841-) in January 1865.

See some examples of his engraving work, including a self portrait c. 1890, over on the blog behind AotW.

07/30/1840; New York City, NY

11/20/1891; New Yorkk City (Manhattan), NY; burial in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, NY