Edmund Burke Whitman


Edmund Burke Whitman was a quartermaster during the American Civil War. After the war he was Superintendent of National Cemeteries where he developed the principles for the selection of new United States National Cemetery sites in April 1869. His principles specified that a site should be of historical interest, and it should have convenient access for visitors. He and his team of United States Colored Troops located more than 100,000 bodies of Union fallen in the Southern U.S. Most of the information was given to him by the African American inhabitants, as the white populace was often hostile to his efforts.

Biography

He was born in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts on October 18, 1812 to Alfred Whitman and Betsey Robbins. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Harvard University in 1838.
On August 30, 1839 he married Nancy Russell in Kingston, Massachusetts. They had four children: Amelia Whitman, Alfred Whitman, Russell Whitman, and James Whitman. Nancy died around 1854 or 1855. In 1855 the family moved to Lawrence, Kansas.
He married Lucretia Clapp on October 25, 1858. They had a son: Edmund Whitman. In 1877 the family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
He died on September 2, 1883 in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Whitman is prominently featured in the 2008 historical book This Republic of Suffering: Death and the American Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust.