Most history books record three events during his career: the founding of Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the massacre at Wounded Knee, and his continued role as a battalion commander during the Pine Ridge Campaign of 1890–91. These events are arguably the most noteworthy in Whitside's four decades in the U.S. cavalry.
Joining the U.S. Army and service in the American Civil War
S. M. Whitside was born on January 9, 1839, in Toronto, Canada. He grew up in that area attending Normal School, and later moved to New York where he attended Careyville Academy.[2]
He enlisted into the General Mounted Service in 1858 and served for three years at Carlisle Barracks, PA where he was promoted to the rank of Corporal. Corporal Whitside was assigned on July 27, 1861, to the 3rd Cavalry to fill a vacant noncommissioned officer position, and on August 1, he was promoted to sergeant major of the regiment. On August 3, Congress redesignated the 3d Cavalry as the 6th Cavalry Regiment.[2]
Group of 6th U.S. Cavalry officers in camp at Snickers Gap, Va., in 1862, standing, left to right, 2nd Lt. Thos. W. Simson, 1st Lt. Albert Coats. Sitting, left to right, 2nd Lt. Samuel Whitside, Captain August Kautz.[3]
On November 1, three sergeants were offered commissions; among these was Sergeant Major Samuel M. Whitside. He accepted his appointment as a second lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Cavalry on November 4, 1861, and assumed the duties of a junior officer in Company K. His commander was Captain Charles R. Lowell.[2]
Lieutenant Whitside served with his company in the 6th Cavalry during the Peninsular Campaign of 1862 where he participated in the following battles: Williamsburg – May 5, Slatersville – May 7, New Bridge – May 20, Ellison's Mills – May 23, Hanover Court House – 27 to May 29, Black Creek – June 26, and Malvern Hill – August 5,.[2][4]
Whitside next served as an aide-de-camp on the staff of Major General Nathaniel Banks, and participated in the Siege of Port Hudson in Louisiana in 1863. However, Whitside suffered from a number of ailments—including smallpox—and was severely injured at the Battle of Culpeper Court House. After briefly serving as an aide to generals John H. Martindale and Alfred Pleasonton, he spent the remainder of the Civil War on recruiting duty in Rhode Island and mustering duty in West Virginia. He later received brevet promotions to captain and major for faithful and meritorious service.[2]
Whitside served for the next 20 years with the 6th Cavalry commanding B Company at various posts throughout the West.
Founder of Fort Huachuca – Captain Samuel M. Whitside, 6th U.S. Cavalry Regiment, c. 1876. Dissatisfied with the condition of Camp Wallen, on 3 March Whitside led the two companies, consisting of four officers and 127 troopers, approximately nine miles up into the Huachuca Mountains where they encamped near a spring in a heavily wooded area that offered excellent observation over the valleys below. Whitside realized this was the perfect location for the new camp. On 4 March, he ordered initial entries in a journal, identifying their location as "Camp Huachuca, Huachuca Mountains, Arizona Territory, Captain S. M. Whitside Commanding Officer."[5]
After eighteen years as a captain and almost twenty-four years with the 6th Cavalry Regiment, Whitside was transferred to the 7th Cavalry Regiment in 1885 and promoted to major. The 7th was then serving in the Dakota Territory at various posts, including Fort Meade. In 1887 the regiment moved to Fort Riley, Kansas, and a more settled lifestyle. During the previous twenty-two years of service on the frontier, Whitside married and had seven children, four of which died in childhood, and served at over twenty posts, spending an average of ten months at any one location.
Whitside was married to Caroline P. McGavock of Nashville, Tennessee, for thirty-six years.[8] Of their seven children, three survived to adulthood.[2] Their eldest surviving son, Warren Whitside, became a colonel in the Army Quartermaster Corps and his son, Warren, Jr.; served in the U.S. Navy as a captain.[9] Samuel and Caroline's daughter, Madeline, married 1st Lt. Archie Miller, a cavalry officer and eventual Medal of Honor recipient. Their daughter, Caroline, would marry Robert Whitney Burns, a future army lieutenant general. Their youngest child, Victor, became a Major in the Army and commanded an infantry battalion during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive before dying in Germany of pneumonia at the end of World War I.
^Adjutant General's Office, "Statement of Service," (on file at the Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, Pension Application # 819.916, Certificate # 587.095, "Whitside Box").
^ abcdefRussell, Major Samuel L., "Selfless Service: The Cavalry Career of Brigadier General Samuel M. Whitside from 1858 to 1902." MMAS Thesis, Fort Leavenworth: U.S. Command and General Staff College, 2002.
^Defense Supply Association, The Quartermaster Review, March–April 1934 issue, pages 53 and 73.
^Cochran, Orville A. "Samuel Marmaduke Whitside: Trooper to Brigadier General, United States Cavalry 1839–1904 (A Biographical Resume of the Founder of Fort Huachuca, Arizona)." Fort Huachuca, 1964.
United States
United States Army
Brigadier general
6th Cav Regt
7th Cav Regt
5th Cav Regt
10th Cav Regt
Brevet Captain
Brevet Major
