Civil War
In January 1861, then Captain Whiting was an engineer responsible for US Army installations in Georgia and Florida. As Georgia and Florida state militia seized these sites by force, Whiting took no discernible action. On January 3rd, Whiting received information that Georgia was moving to take Fort Marion, but he made no effort to warn the garrison there or its commander. By the end of the month, more than half a dozen U.S. Army forts, arsenals, and barracks had fallen to state forces without any action by Whiting.
Whiting resigned his commission February 20, 1861, in the weeks before Fort Sumter, and was appointed major of engineers, Confederate States Army. After improving defenses of Charleston harbor, Whiting served under Major General Joseph E. Johnston as chief engineer of the Army of the Shenandoah and at the First Battle of Bull Run. Promoted to brigadier general in August 1861, Whiting later commanded a division at Seven Pines, rapidly redeploying to support Stonewall Jackson in his second Valley Campaign, and returning by rail to the Peninsula with his division to fight in the battles at Gaines' Mill and Malvern Hill.
Robert E. Lee was not satisfied with Whiting's performance during the Seven Days Battles and replaced him with Brig. Gen. John Hood. Assigned command of the more peaceful military district of Wilmington, North Carolina, Whiting remained in that post, briefly taking over Petersburg defenses as a major general in May 1864. By the beginning of 1865, Whiting found himself defending the district against forces under Maj. Gen. Alfred Howe Terry. Wounded and captured at Fort Fisher near Wilmington. Whiting from his prison cell requested investigation of his superior, General Braxton Bragg's actions. Whiting was angry that Bragg failed to use a division under Maj. Gen. Robert Hoke to attack the Federal rear while the fort was under assault.
Taken prisoner with the rest of fort's defenders, and weakened by war service and the leg injury suffered at Fort Fisher, Whiting died of dysentery at the Union military hospital at Fort Columbus on Governors Island in New York City on March 10, 1865. He was buried a few miles distant at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. His widow, Kate, had his body exhumed in 1900 and moved to Oakdale Cemetery in Wilmington, North Carolina.
Whiting's brother Jasper died of illness in Confederate service. Another brother, Robert, was in charge of Green-Wood Cemetery, where Whiting was originally interred.
On July 23, 2012, the Cape Fear Museum in Wilmington unveiled Whiting's uniform for exhibition.
Read more about this topic: William H.C. Whiting
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