Whipple was born to David and Abigail Brown (Pepper) Whipple in
Greenwich, Massachusetts. He grew up in
Concord, Massachusetts, where his father owned an inn. He was teaching school at Concord in 1834 when he applied to the
United States Military Academy at West Point. After he was turned down by the academy, he attended
Amherst College until 1837, when he was finally accepted to West Point. Whipple graduated fifth in the class of 1841. His early career included surveying the
Patapsco River, sounding and mapping the approaches to
New Orleans, and surveying
Portsmouth Harbor. From 1844 to 1849, he was assigned to a survey of the northeastern boundary of the United States, serving under
James Duncan Graham. In 1848, Whipple was assigned to the United States Boundary Commission, tasked with
surveying the new boundary between the US and Mexico resulting from the
Mexican–American War. For a time, he served as the interim chief surveyor for the commission until
William H. Emory was named to the position. Heading east from San Diego, the survey parties traveled through some of the most rugged and remote terrain in the country. Compounding the difficulty was the extreme desert heat and hostile
Apache Indians. Whipple accomplished his assigned surveys in spite of these challenges and was promoted to first lieutenant on April 24, 1851. In 1853, Congress authorized the
Pacific Railroad Surveys to select the best route for a transcontinental railroad. Whipple was directed to lead one of those surveys along the 35th parallel from
Fort Smith, Arkansas, to Los Angeles. The Whipple expedition left Fort Smith on July 15, 1853, with a group of seventy men, including soldiers, teamsters, and scientists. Among the scientists were
John Milton Bigelow, a medical doctor and botanist;
Jules Marcou, a Swiss geologist; and
Balduin Möllhausen, a German artist and a protege of
Alexander von Humboldt. Whipple's party made good progress through
Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), the Texas panhandle and the
New Mexico Territory, reaching
Albuquerque on October 5. After Albuquerque, they were joined by frontiersman
Antoine Leroux who helped to guide the surveyors through the most difficult part of the journey to California. They reached California on February 7 after a near-disastrous crossing of the
Colorado River, then crossed the
Mojave Desert and reached Los Angeles on March 20, 1854. The findings of the Whipple expedition, along with those of the other transcontinental survey parties, were published by the government in a massive twelve-volume report titled the
Pacific Railroad Reports. In addition to reports on topography, geology, botany and zoology, Whipple wrote a lengthy essay on the southwestern Indian tribes that the expedition had encountered. Whipple was promoted to captain in 1855 and then assigned to supervise efforts to open the
Great Lakes to navigation by larger vessels, deepening channels through the
St. Clair flats and the
St. Marys River. He was also commander of the lighthouse districts from
Lake Superior to the
St. Lawrence River. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Whipple served for a time under General
Irvin McDowell as commander of the nascent
balloon reconnaissance unit. He made a balloon ascent over the Confederate lines at
Bull Run. He then became chief topographical engineer under General
George B. McClellan in the
Army of the Potomac. His maps were used on many Virginia battlefields. In 1862, as brigadier general of volunteers, he led the defense of
Washington, D.C., on its Virginia side. In September 1862, Whipple was assigned to the
III Corps, and on December 13–15, participated in the
Battle of Fredericksburg. Whipple was severely wounded by a sharpshooter at
Chancellorsville on May 4, 1863, received last rites on the battlefield, and was taken to Washington. Just before Whipple's death on May 7, President
Abraham Lincoln, a friend of Whipple's, promoted him to major general of volunteers. Lincoln rode in an open carriage as part of Whipple's funeral cortege. He was later awarded posthumously more brevets for his wartime services, and both of his sons received presidential appointments to the military academy of their choice. He was buried in the Proprietors' Cemetery,
Portsmouth, New Hampshire. ==Commemoration==