Joseph Newell Whitney (1836 - 1912)

Born Sep 1836 in Raymond, Cumberland County, Maine

Ancestors

Husband of Portia (Sprague) Browning — married 1 Jul 1910 in Atlantic City, New Jersey

Died 10 Jan 1912 at age 75 in Washington, District of Columbia

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Biography

Joseph Newell Whitney was born 13 September 1836 in Cumberland County, Maine, the second child of Zachariah and Elizabeth Whitney.

Enlisted in Company B, Rhode Island 7th Cavalry Squadron on 24 June 1862 - whilst a student at Bowdoin College - at Providence, Rhode Island. JN Whitney was promoted to Full Sergeant on 17 July 1862. Mustered out 2 October 1862 at Providence.

Enlisted November 1862 as a 2nd Lieutenant. On 1 December 1862, he was commissioned into "B" Company, 2nd Rhode Island Cavalry commanded by Colonel A.W. Corliss. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in 1863.

In the summer of 1863, Joseph Newell Whitney was taken prisoner at Port Hudson, Louisiana; while in the line of duty, he was confined at Libby Prison, Virginia; at Macon, Georgia; at Charleston, and at Columbia, South Carolina between the years 1863 and 1865. He contracted chronic diarrhea and scurvy.

He was honorably discharged at Annapolis, Maryland on 11 March 1865 by reason of disability and was transferred out on 12 March 1865.

He was married to Charlotte S Burroughs in Washington, D.C. on 23 November 1865 by Dr. Hall, Rector of Epiphany Church. They lived almost 50 years in the District of Columbia after his graduation from Columbia Law School in 1867. Joseph Newell worked in the Civil Service - in 1878 he became Chief Clerk, Bureau of Statistics, US Treasury Department in Washington, DC. Charlotte Whitney died 18 March 1909. They had no children.

Joseph Newell Whitney and Portia Chase Sprague married in Atlantic City, NJ in July 1910. He died 18 months later in Washington, DC.

Burial: Rock Creek Cemetery Washington, District of Columbia

Sources

Maine, Birth Records, 1621-1922

1850 - 1910 US Federal Census Records.

Theta of Delta Kappa Epsilon: The Story of Sixty Years, 1844-1904 : Being a ... By John Clair Minot, page 167.

Register of Rhode Island Volunteers 1861-1865.

National Archives, Civil War Pension File of Joseph N. Whitney, Invalid's Application #660240, Certificate #454906.

District of Columbia, Select Deaths and Burials, 1840-1964

Find A Grave Memorial# 39831194.