Amiel Weeks Whipple (October 21, 1817 – May 7, 1863)
[Anderson, TSHA] was an American military officer and topographical engineer. He served as a
brigadier general
Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...
in the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, where he was mortally wounded at the
Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville, April 30 – May 6, 1863, was a major battle of the American Civil War (1861–1865), and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville campaign.
Chancellorsville is known as Lee's "perfect battle" because h ...
. Among his many survey assignments for the US War Department, he participated in the difficult survey of the new
United States and Mexico boundary and led the survey of a possible
transcontinental railroad route
Transcontinental may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* "Transcontinental", a song by the band Pedro the Lion from the album ''Achilles Heel''
* TC Transcontinental, a publishing, media and marketing company based in Canada, a subsidiary o ...
along the thirty-fifth parallel from Arkansas to Los Angeles.
Biography
Whipple was born to David and Abigail Brown (Pepper) Whipple in
Greenwich, Massachusetts
Greenwich () was a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts. The town was lost as a result of the formation of the Quabbin Reservoir in order to supply Boston's growing water needs.
History
Greenwich was established in 1739 as Quabbin, incorporat ...
. He grew up in
Concord, Massachusetts
Concord () is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. At the 2020 census, the town population was 18,491. The United States Census Bureau considers Concord part of Greater Boston. The town center is near where the conflu ...
where his father owned an inn. He was teaching school at Concord in 1834 when he applied to the
United States Military Academy at West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
. After he was turned down by the Academy, he attended
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...
until 1837 when he was finally accepted to West Point. Whipple graduated fifth in the class of 1841. His early career included surveying the
Patapsco River
The Patapsco River mainstem is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 river in central Maryland that flows into the Chesapeake Bay. The river's tidal port ...
, sounding and mapping the approaches to
, and surveying
Portsmouth Harbor
The Piscataqua River (Abenaki: ''Pskehtekwis'') is a tidal river forming the boundary of the U.S. states of New Hampshire and Maine from its origin at the confluence of the Salmon Falls River and Cochecho River. The drainage basin of the riv ...
. From 1844 to 1849 he was assigned to a survey of the northeastern boundary of the United States, serving under
James Duncan Graham
James Duncan Graham (April 1, 1799December 28, 1865) was an early member and founder of the Corps of Topographical Engineers who engaged in many topographical exercises. A topographical engineer, he directed the re-survey of the Mason–Dixon li ...
.
[''Dictionary of American Biography'', 1936]
In 1848 Whipple was assigned to the United States Boundary Commission, tasked with
surveying the new boundary between the US and Mexico resulting from the
Mexican–American War
The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...
. For a time, he served as the interim chief surveyor for the commission until
William H. Emory
William Hemsley Emory (September 7, 1811 – December 1, 1887) was a prominent American surveyor and civil engineer in the 19th century. As an officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers he specialized in mapping the United State ...
was named to the position. Heading east from San Diego, the survey parties traveled through some of the most rugged and remote terrain in the country. Compounding the difficulty was the extreme desert heat and hostile Apache Indians. Whipple accomplished his assigned surveys in spite of these challenges and was promoted to first lieutenant on April 24, 1851.
By 1853 his survey work was complete and his reports had been written.
[Werne, 2007]
In 1853 Congress authorized the
Pacific Railroad Surveys
The Pacific Railroad Surveys (1853–1855) were of a series of explorations of the American West designed to find and document possible routes for a transcontinental railroad across North America. The expeditions included surveyors, scientists, and ...
to select the best route for a transcontinental railroad. Whipple was directed to lead one of those surveys along the 35th parallel from Fort Smith, Arkansas to Los Angeles. The Whipple expedition left Fort Smith on July 15, 1853 with a group of seventy men including soldiers, teamsters, and scientists. Among the scientists were
John Milton Bigelow
John Milton Bigelow (June 23, 1804 – July 18, 1878) was an American physician and botanist. He had a successful medical practice, and also, a keen interest in botany - especially native plants with medical applications. He participated as a bot ...
, a medical doctor and botanist;
Jules Marcou
Jules Marcou (April 20, 1824 – April 17, 1898) was a French-Swiss-American geologist.
Biography
He was born at Salins, in the ''département'' of Jura, in France. He was educated at Besançon and at the Collège Saint Louis, Paris. After co ...
, a Swiss geologist; and
Balduin Möllhausen, a German artist and a protege of
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...
. Whipple's party made good progress through Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), the Texas panhandle and the New Mexico Territory, reaching
Albuquerque
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
on October 5.
[McDougall, TSHA] After Albuquerque, they were joined by frontiersman
Antoine Leroux
Joaquin Antoine Leroux, aka Watkins Leroux (1801–1861), was a celebrated 19th century mountain man and trail guide based in New Mexico. Leroux was a member of the convention that organized New Mexico Territory.
Biography
In 1846, Leroux serv ...
who helped to guide the surveyors through the most difficult part of the journey to California. They reached California on February 7 after a near-disastrous crossing of the Colorado River then crossed the Mojave Desert and reached Los Angeles on March 20, 1854.
[Goetzmann, 1979][Beidleman, 2006]
The findings of the Whipple expedition along with the other transcontinental survey parties were published by the government in a massive twelve-volume report, the ''Pacific Railroad Reports''. In addition to reports on topography, geology, botany and zoology, Whipple wrote a lengthy essay on the southwestern Indian tribes that the expedition had encountered.
Whipple was promoted to captain in 1855 and then assigned to supervise efforts to open the Great Lakes to navigation by larger vessels, deepening channels through the St. Clair flats and the St. Mary's River. He was also commander of the lighthouse districts from
Lake Superior
Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...
to the
Saint Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...
.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Whipple served for a time under General
Irvin McDowell
Irvin McDowell (October 15, 1818 – May 4, 1885) was a career American army officer. He is best known for his defeat in the First Battle of Bull Run, the first large-scale battle of the American Civil War. In 1862, he was given command ...
as commander of the nascent balloon reconnaissance unit.
He made a balloon ascent over the Confederate lines at
Bull Run.
He then became chief topographical engineer under General
George B. McClellan
George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, Civil War Union general, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey. A graduate of West Point, McCl ...
in the
Army of the Potomac
The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the surrender of the Confedera ...
. His maps were used on many Virginia battlefields. In 1862, as brigadier general of volunteers, he led the defense of
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, on its Virginia side. In September 1862 Whipple was assigned to the Third Army Corps, and on December 13–15 participated in the
Battle of Fredericksburg
The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11–15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. The combat, between the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnsi ...
. Whipple was severely wounded by a sharpshooter at
Chancellorsville on May 4, 1863, received last rites on the battlefield and was taken to Washington. Just before Whipple's death on May 7 President Lincoln, a friend of Whipple's, promoted him to major general of volunteers. Lincoln rode in an open carriage as part of Whipple's funeral cortege. He was later awarded posthumously more brevets for his wartime services, and both of his sons received presidential appointments to the military academy of their choice.
[ He was buried in the Proprietors' Cemetery, ]Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Portsmouth is a city in Rockingham County, New Hampshire, United States. At the 2020 census it had a population of 21,956. A historic seaport and popular summer tourist destination on the Piscataqua River bordering the state of Maine, Portsmou ...
.
Commemoration
Whipple was memorialized with the naming of two forts, Fort Whipple, Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona (also known as Arizona Territory) was a territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863, until February 14, 1912, when the remaining extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of ...
and Fort Whipple, Arlington County, Virginia (now Fort Myer
Fort Myer is the previous name used for a U.S. Army post next to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, and across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. Founded during the American Civil War as Fort Cass and Fort Whipple, t ...
). In California, Whipple Peak was named in his honor by Joseph C. Ives
Joseph Christmas Ives (25 December 1829 – 12 November 1868) was an American soldier, botanist, and an explorer of the Colorado River in 1858.
Biography
Ives was born in New York City on Christmas Day, 1829. He graduated from Bowdoin College ...
, a surveyor who served with Whipple on the Mexican boundary survey.[Gudde, 1969]
Numerous plants taxa were named in his honor, including the genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
''Whipplea
''Whipplea'' is a monotypic genus containing the single species ''Whipplea modesta'', which is known by several common names including common whipplea, yerba de selva, and modesty. It is a dicot shrub or sub-shrub in the Hydrangeaceae family, nat ...
'' and species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
'' Hesperoyucca whipplei'', and Sclerocactus whipplei.
The fish '' Cyprinella whipplei'' Girard, 1856 was named after him.
See also
*List of American Civil War generals (Union)
Union generals
__NOTOC__
The following lists show the names, substantive ranks, and brevet ranks (if applicable) of all general officers who served in the United States Army during the Civil War, in addition to a small selection of lower-ranke ...
*List of Massachusetts generals in the American Civil War
There were approximately 120 general officers from Massachusetts who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. This list consists of generals who were either born in Massachusetts or lived in Massachusetts when they joined the army (i ...
Notes
References
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Whipple, Amiel Weeks
1817 births
1863 deaths
Union Army generals
Converts to Roman Catholicism
People of Massachusetts in the American Civil War
Union military personnel killed in the American Civil War
United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers
United States Military Academy alumni
Explorers of California
Explorers of Arizona
Amherst College alumni
People from Greenwich, Massachusetts