Amiel Weeks Whipple

Amiel Weeks Whipple
Amiel Weeks Whipple
Born	(1818-10-15)October 15, 1818 Greenwich, Massachusetts
Died	Spotsylvania County, Virginia
Place of burial	Proprietors' Cemetery, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	Union Army
Years of service	1841 - 1863
Rank	Major General
Battles/wars	American Civil War

Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple (October 15, 1818 – May 7, 1863) was an American military engineer and surveyor. He served as a brigadier general in the American Civil War, where he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Fort Whipple, now Fort Myer, was named in his honor. He was the topographical engineer/surveyor in charge of the 1853-4 Pacific Railroad Survey from Arkansas to Los Angeles in 1853 and 1854, for a potential transcontinental railroad route. Numerous plants taxa were named in his honor, including the genus Whipplea and species Hesperoyucca whipplei.

Biography

Whipple was born to David and Abigail Brown Pepper Whipple in Greenwich, Massachusetts. He attended Amherst College and West Point, graduating in the Class of 1841. His early career including surveying the Patapsco River, sounding and mapping the approaches to New Orleans, surveying Portsmouth Harbor, and, as a lieutenant, helping to determine portions of the United States' borders with Canada and Mexico. Fort Whipple, the Arizona Territory's first capital, was named in his honor.

In 1853 he led explorations for the first transcontinental railroad route to the Pacific Ocean, near the 35th parallel. From 1855 to 1857, Whipple published Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. Among other things, the book contains the formal botanical description of the cactus species Opuntia davisii, and others of which Whipple is a binomial author, known as an "in" author.

Whipple converted to Catholicism in Detroit circa 1857, when commanding the lighthouse districts from Lake Superior to the Saint Lawrence River.

During the Civil War, Whipple first served under General Irvin McDowell, then became chief topographical engineer under General George B. McClellan in the Army of the Potomac. His maps were used on many Virginia battlefields. In 1862, as brigadier general of volunteers, he led the defense of Washington, D.C., on its Virginia side. After great gallantry at Fredericksburg, where he led third division III Corps, Whipple was severely wounded by a sharpshooter at Chancellorsville, and received the last rites on the battlefield. Taken to Washington he was breveted brigadier-general on May 4, major general of volunteers on May 6, and major-general by brevet on May 7, only a few hours before his death in Washington. He was buried in the Proprietors' Cemetery, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Fort Whipple in Prescott, Arizona was named in his honor.

See also

• List of American Civil War generals
• List of Massachusetts generals in the American Civil War

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: