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C.J. Whiting

C.J. Whiting

Federal (USA)

Major

Charles Jarvis Whiting

(1814 - 1890)

Home State: Maine

Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1835;Class Rank: 4

Command Billet: Brigade Commander

Branch of Service: Cavalry

Unit: 1st Brigade, Cavalry Division

Before Antietam

He graduated from West point on 1 July 1835 and was brevetted 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd United States Artillery. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant on 10 September 1835 and saw action in the Seminole War, but resigned on 31 May 1836. He was then a civil engineer: on a railroad project in Florida and Alabama (1837), Mississippi River survey (1838), school principal in Maine (1839-45), and surveyor, rail engineer, and farmer in San Jose, CA (1849-55).

He was appointed Captain in the 2nd US Cavalry on 3 March 1855 and transferred to the 5th Cavalry on 3 August 1861.

He was promoted to Major, 2nd US Cavalry on 17 July 1862. He was captured at Gaines' Mill, VA on 27 June and a prisoner until exchanged in August.

On the Campaign

He commanded the First Brigade, Cavalry Division in Maryland.

The rest of the War

He was dismissed from the service on 5 November 1863 for "using contemptuous and disrespectful words against the President of the United States."

After the War

He was reinstated by President Johnson on 2 August 1866 as Major of the 3rd US Cavalry (to rank from 17 July 1862). He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, 6th Cavalry on 6 May 1869, and served in Texas and New Mexico until transferred to the supernumerary list on 15 December 1870. He was honorably mustered out of the Army on 1 January 1871.

References & notes

His service from Heitman1 and Cullum;2 his Cullum #1835. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from Miller;3 probably from an original now at the Library of Congress.

"Rebecca [Waterman], of Canterbury, [CT,] married Charles Jarvis Whiting, of Ellesville [sic], Me., June 24, 1841, by Rev. Tubal Wakefield" - Barbour Collection Connecticut Vital Records, Windham County, CT

Birth

11/28/1814 in MA

Death

01/02/1890; Castine, ME; burial in Castine Cemetery, Castine, ME

Notes

1   Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 1029  [AotW citation 29515]

2   Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, Vol. I, pp. 589-590  [AotW citation 29516]

3   Miller, Francis Trevelyan, editor in chief, Photographic History of the Civil War, 10 vols., New York: The Review of Reviews Co., 1911-12, Vol. 4, pg. 225  [AotW citation 29517]