Amiel Weeks Whipple

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Amiel Weeks Whipple (October 15, 1816 – May 7, 1863) was an American military engineer and surveyor. He served as a brigadier general in the American Civil War, where he was killed in action.

Whipple was born to David and Abigail Pepper Whipple in Greenwich, Massachusetts. He attended Amherst College and West Point, graduating in the Class of 1841. His early career including surveying the Patapsco River, sounding and mapping the approaches to New Orleans, surveying Portsmouth Harbor, and, as a lieutenant, helping to determine portions of the United States' borders with Canada and Mexico. Fort Whipple, the Arizona Territory's first capital, was named in his honor.

In 1853 he led explorations for the first transcontinental railroad route to the Pacific Ocean, near the 35th parallel. He converted to Catholicism in Detroit circa 1857, when commanding the lighthouse districts from Lake Superior to the Saint Lawrence River.

During the Civil War, Whipple first served under General Irvin McDowell, 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. After great gallantry at the battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg, he was severely wounded by a sharpshooter at Chancellorsville, and received the last rites on the battlefield. Taken to Washington he was breveted brigadier-general on May 4, major general of volunteers on May 6, and major-general by brevet on May 7, only a few hours before his death in Washington. He was buried in the Proprietors' Cemetery, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.