Author: Charles Barney Whittelsey
Title: Genealogy of the Whittelsey-Whittlesey family
Publisher: Hartford, Conn. : Case, Lockwood & Brainard Co.:
Gen. Whittelsey devoted much of his leisure time during
several years next prior to his decease in collecting information
and writing up the family history, published in 1855, which has
proved invaluable to the compiler. Those who went through
the labors of procuring and arranging details of the first gene-
alogy could appreciate the patience and perseverance necessary
to such a work. His corps commander is the author of an
eulogy published in the Detroit Post, from which the following
is extracted :
' ' The press telegrams from Washington announce the death of General
H. M. Whittelsey in the United States military hospital near that city. To
those who lived in Detroit twelve years ago, General Whittelsey was well
known as among the foremost young men in most public enterprises — in
the Young Men's Society, in the fire department, in the military organiza-
tions, and in educational interests generally. Few among us were more
esteemed for high intellectual and social qualities. In the summer of 1861
he left the office of the Register of Deeds for the county of Wayne to accept
an appointment as assistant quartermaster of the volunteers, with the rank
of captain in the United States army. He served through the war with
fidelity and conscientiousness of duty unsurpassed in his department of ser-
vice. During all the years of the war he was the custodian of millions of
public money and public property. So conscientious in the discharge of
even minor duties of office ; so punctilious in the discharge of all social
courtesies ; a friend so loving, generous, and noble, a man so full of the
attributes of honor and honesty, the writer may be permitted to repeat of
him, with a deep feeling, the trite quotation :
" ' None knew him but to love him.
None named him but to praise.' "
Service record: Promoted to Full Captain on 15 Apr 1861.Commissioned an officer in the U.S. Volunteers Quartermaster's Dept Infantry Regiment on 15 Apr 1861.Mustered out on 15 Jul 1861.Commissioned an officer in the U.S. Volunteers Quartermaster's Dept Infantry Regiment on 31 Oct 1861.Promoted to Full Captain on 31 Oct 1861.Promoted to Brevet Major on 13 Mar 1865.Promoted to Brevet Lt Colonel on 13 Mar 1865.Promoted to Brevet Colonel on 13 Mar 1865.Promoted to Brevet Brig-General on 13 Mar 1865.Promoted to Full Colonel on 26 May 1865.Mustered out on 16 Jul 1867 (U.S., Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles, 1861-1865 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2009).
Quartermaster for Michigan State troops; Captain AQM on staff of Brig. General Alpheus S. Williams; Captain and acting Chief QM for XX Corps; Colonel and Chief QM for Army of Georga; City Comptroller of Washington, D.C., 1870-1871. Buried Evergreen Cemetery, Owego, N.Y. Section 12, lot 23.
(www site: Broome County G.A.R. posts (http://library.morrisville.edu/local_history/sites/gar_post/broome_gar.html; accessed March 3, 2003].
Dear Ed,
A quick look at an internet database I subscribe to shows the General dying
in Washington D.C. rather than Owego, but otherwise all the statistics are
the same.
It shows his service history as:
04/01/61
Qtr Master
Full
Vol
Michigan Troops
10/31/61
Captain
Full
Vol
Captain & Asst Quartermaster
03/13/65
Brig-Gen
Brevet
Vol
05/26/65
Colonel
Full
Vol
Colonel & Quartermaster
(e-mail from Michael Spangler, March 21, 2003)