John Marshall Whitney was born around 1842 in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He attended Amherst College in the early 1860s.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on September 6, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in the 1^st Massachusetts Cavalry. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 9 inches tall, with brown hair and grey eyes.

 

In October 1862, he applied for a position as hospital steward in the Regular Army. He explained that he was a “member of the Senior class of Amherst Coll[ege],” and that his “knowledge of pharmacy has been entirely acquired by myself. I expect to study for the medical profession and would desire the position I apply for, to forward me somewhat in my studies.” His college president described him as a “young man of excellent talents and character” who would “acquit himself honorably as a faithful, brave patriotic and earnest soldier.” He received the appointment on November 6, 1862.

 

He mustered out on March 8, 1864, and he apparently became a surgeon in the United States Navy soon afterward. He remained devoted to the Union. In June 1864, after learning of his friend Edward Stacy’s death, he wrote that Stacy had “died as becomes a patriot and a practical soldier of the cross, fighting that his parents and friends at home might enjoy the blessings of a free and stable government.” Whitney drowned near Jacksonville, Florida, on August 16, 1864, and his body was “not recovered.”

SOURCES