Early Life
Kirkland was born in Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina. He was appointed to the United States Military Academy in 1852, but did not graduate. Despite this failure, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps in 1855. He resigned his U.S. commission in 1860.
Read more about this topic: William Whedbee Kirkland
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Women who marry early are often overly enamored of the kind of man who looks great in wedding pictures and passes the maid of honor his telephone number.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“Biography is: a system in which the contradictions of a human life are unified.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)