John W. Pitridge was born on January 19, 1842, in Forest Dale, Vermont, to John Pitridge and Hannah Reynolds. His father died in the 1840s, and his mother married Jarvis Phelps around 1849. He grew up and attended school in Brandon, Vermont, and by 1860, he was working as a farm laborer.
He enlisted in the Union army on September 4, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company H of the 5th Vermont Infantry on September 16. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the siege of Petersburg. He was wounded in the Battle of Savage’s Station on June 29, 1862, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. In June 1863, he expressed frustration with the Union war effort, declaring, “all this war is for is to see which side can kill the most men.” He blamed the “Blud thirstey cusses in the north” for the war, adding that “every one of them fellows aughto be in hell.” He mustered out on June 29, 1865.
He returned to Brandon after the war. He applied for a federal pension in July 1865 and eventually secured one. He married Mary J. Comstock there on September 16, 1865, and they had at least two children: Etta, born around 1870; and Vernon, born around 1872. By 1880, they were living in Leicester, Vermont, and Pitridge was working in a mill. By 1890, he was suffering from rheumatism and catarrh. He represented Leicester in the state legislature in 1910, and he also served as a local overseer of the poor. He died of “acute cardiac dilation” in Salisbury, Vermont on February 10, 1925.