WHIPPLE
AVHISTLER
board appointed to settle a land dispute between
Pennsylvania and Connecticut, 1783 : state super-
intendent of finances, 1782-84 ; judge of the
superior court, 1783-85, and justice of the peace
and quorum of the state of New Hampsliire from
1784 until his death, which occuri-ed in Ports-
mouth, N.H.. Nov. 28, 1785.
WHIPPLE, William Denison, soldier, was born in Nelson, Madison county, N.Y. Aug. 2, 1826. He was graduated at the U.S. Military academy in 1851, and was commissioned 2d lieu- tenant Sept. 9, 1851. He served on the frontier, was promoted 1st lieutenant, Dec. 31, 1856, and served on the Gila and Navajo expeditions. On May 11, 1861, he was brevetted captain, and em- ployed in the adjutant-general's oflSce at Wash- ington, until July, when he became assistant 'adjutant-general of Hunter's division, fighting at Bull Run, July 31, 1861. He was promoted cap- tain Aug. 3, 1861, served in the Departments of Pennsylvania and of Virginia and was commis- sioned lieutenant-colonel of volunteers Feb. 10, 1862, becoming assistant adjutant-general of the Middle department and of the 8th army coi-ps. He was promoted major, U.S.A., July 17,1862, and brigadier-general of volunteers, July 17, 1863, was assistant adjutant-general of the Army of the Cumberland, and was engaged at [Missionary Ridge, Nov, 23, 1863. He accompanied the army on the march to Atlanta, and was engaged at Nashville, Dec. 15-16, 1864. He was brevetted lieutenant-colonel, colonel, brigadier-general and major-general, U.S.A., March 13, 1865, and was honorably mustered out of the volunteer service, Jan. 15, 1866. He was promoted lieutenant-col- onel, March 3, 1875, and colonel, Feb. 28, 1887. He was retired Aug. 2, 1890, and during a trip around the world in 1897, at the request of the war department and the G.A.R., visited Stock- liolm, Sweden, He was mairied, Dec. 16, 1854, to Caroline Mary Cooke of Norristown, Pa,
WHISTLER, George Washington, engineer ; was born in Fort W^ayne, Ind., May 19, 1800 ; son of Maj, John Whistler and maternal grandson of Sir Edward Bishop. Major John Whistler (1756- (?) 1829), a native of Ireland, served as a Revolu- tionary soldier under General Burgoyne ; immi- grated with his wife to Hagerstown, Md., after the war, became brevet major, U.S.A., com- manding the post at Fort Wayne in 1800, and was military store-keeper at Newport, K)-., and at Jefferson Barracks, Mo. George W. Whistler was graduated from the U.S. Military academy and promoted 2d lieutenant, corps of artillery, July 1, 1819 ; served on topographical and gar- rison duty, 1819-21 ; was promoted 2d lieutenant, 1st artillery on the reorganization of tlie army, June 1, 1821, and transferred to 2d artillery, Aug. 16 ; was assistant teacher of drawing at the
Military academy , 1821-22 ; again on topographical
duty, 1822-33, being promoted 1st lieutenant. 2d
artillery, Aug. 16, 1829, and resigned his commis-
sion, Dec, 31, 1833, He was married, first, to Mary,
daughter of Dr. Foster and Deborah (Delano)
Smith. She died in 1827 and he was married
secondly to Anna Matilda, daughter of Dr. Charles
Donald McNeill of Wilmington, N.C. While an
officer in the army Mr. Whistler was also asso-
ciate engineer successively, of the Baltimore and
Ohio, the Baltimore and Susquehanna, and the
Paterson, N.J., and Hudson River railroads,
1828-32, After his resignation he was superin-
tending engineer of the Locks and Canals com-
pany, Lowell, Mass., 1835-37, meanwhile acting
as supervisor of the Stonington (Conn.) and
Providence (R.I.) railroad, locating in the former
place, 1837 ; was consulting engineer of the
Western railroad from Worcester, Mass., to
Albany, N.Y., 1837-40, and chief engineer of the
same, 1840-42, making his home in Springfield,
Mass. In 1842 he became consulting engineer of
the projected railroad from St. Petersburg to
Moscow, Russia, a route covering 420 miles, and
which was opened, Sept. 25, 1850. He also served
as supervisor of fortification, arsenal and dock
constructions at Cronstadt, and of other important
engineering work. The decoration of the Order
of St. Anne was conferred upon him by the
emperor of Russia in 1847. A memorial monu-
ment was erected b}' American engineers in
Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, N.Y. He died
of cholera in St. Petersburg. April 7, 1849.
WHISTLER, James Abbott McNeill, artist and author, was born in Lowell, Mass., August 1834 ; son of George W, (q.v.) and Anna Matilda (McNeill) Whistler. He resided with his family in St. Petersburg, Russia, 1842-49. and after his return to America was a student at the U.S. Military academj-, 1851-54. He subsequently spent a short time in England ; studied painting under Charles G. Gleyre in Paris. France, 1856- 58 ; later resided in Chelsea. England, exhibiting two etchings at the Royal Academy in 1859, but being refused admission to the Paris salons of 1859 and 1860. After the exhibition of his \Miite Girl (1862) and other paintings at the Salon des Refuses, he was repeatedly represented at the various exhibitions of foreign art centres. He was married in 1888 to a daughter of J. P. Philip and widow of E. W. Godwin. In 1892 Mr. Whistler took up his permanent residence in Paris, France, where his wife died in 1896. He was a member of the Royal Society of British Artists, and presi- dent of the same, 1886-89 ; became a chevalier of the Legion of Honor of France, 1899, and an Officer, 1892 ; was a Kniglit of the Order of St. Michael, Bavaria : president of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers ; a
