Samuel Whiteside
Encyclopedia
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
pioneer, political figure and military leader. He is not the same person as the Major
Major
Major is a rank of commissioned officer, with corresponding ranks existing in almost every military in the world.When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicator of rank, the term refers to the rank just senior to that of an Army captain and just below the rank of lieutenant colonel. ...
Samuel Whitside
Samuel Whitside
Brigadier General Samuel M. Whitside was a United States Cavalry officer who served from 1858 to 1902. He commanded at every level from platoon to department for 32 of his 43 years in service, including Army posts such a Camp Huachuca, Jefferson Barracks, and Fort Sam Houston, the Departments of...
who participated in the Wounded Knee Massacre
Wounded Knee Massacre
The Wounded Knee Massacre happened on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA. On the day before, a detachment of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M...
in 1890.
Biography
Samuel Whiteside was born on April 12, 1783, in Rutherford County, North CarolinaRutherford County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 62,899 people, 25,191 households, and 17,935 families residing in the county. The population density was 112 people per square mile . There were 29,535 housing units at an average density of 52 per square mile...
. He was the son of John D. Whiteside and grandson of Willian Whiteside. Samuel was the nephew of Davis, James, John D., William F., Thomas, Samuel, and Adam Whiteside who fought the British at the Battle of Kings Mountain
Battle of Kings Mountain
The Battle of Kings Mountain was a decisive battle between the Patriot and Loyalist militias in the Southern campaign of the American Revolutionary War...
, 1780, during the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
. Davis died of wounds suffered in that battle. Both William Sr. and his son, Davis Whiteside, were signers of the Tryon Resolves
Tryon Resolves
The Tryon Resolves were a brief declaration adopted by the citizens of Tryon County in the Province of North Carolina in the early days of the American Revolution. In the Resolves, the county vowed resistance to coercive actions by the British Empire against its North American colonies...
.
Around 1792, the Whiteside family settled near Columbia, Illinois, on the abandoned Flannery Fort site on the Kaskaskia to Cahokia Trail. William F. Whiteside was a militia captain and lived at the fort, called Whiteside Station,until his death in 1815. Thomas died at the fort in 1785 and John moved his family to Bellefountaine, now Waterloo, Illinois. Around 1800 many Whitesdie descendents moved to the Goshen Settlement
Goshen Settlement
The Goshen Settlement was an early American pioneer settlement in what is now Illinois, USA, located to the east of St. Louis, Missouri. The settlement was located about one mile southwest of modern Glen Carbon, Illinois, at the point where Judy's Creek emerges from the bluffs into the American...
, near modern Edwardsville, Illinois
Edwardsville, Illinois
Edwardsville is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 24,293. It is the county seat of Madison County and is the third oldest city in the State of Illinois. The city was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, then Governor of the Illinois...
.
Tecumseh's War
Tecumseh's War or Tecumseh's Rebellion are terms sometimes used to describe a conflict in the Old Northwest between the United States and an American Indian confederacy led by the Shawnee leader Tecumseh...
, Whiteside was placed in command of an Illinois company of the newly formed 17th Infantry. Capt. Samuel Whiteside commanded a company of mounted infantry in the Illinois militia during the War of 1812
War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...
. This company was drawn from St. Clair County
St. Clair County, Illinois
St. Clair County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. In 1970, the U.S. Census Bureau placed the mean center of U.S. population in St. Clair County. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 270,056, which is an increase of 5.5% from 256,082 in 2000. Its county seat is...
, which comprised most of the modern State. In 1814, a woman and six children were killed near modern Alton, Illinois
Alton, Illinois
Alton is a city on the Mississippi River in Madison County, Illinois, United States, about north of St. Louis, Missouri. The population was 27,865 at the 2010 census. It is a part of the Metro-East region of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area in Southern Illinois...
by Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. A party led by then Capt. Whiteside pursued the killers, and killed one of them who was hiding in a tree.
As a captain Whiteside was a signatory to the Kickapoo and Osage
Osage Nation
The Osage Nation is a Native American Siouan-language tribe in the United States that originated in the Ohio River valley in present-day Kentucky. After years of war with invading Iroquois, the Osage migrated west of the Mississippi River to their historic lands in present-day Arkansas, Missouri,...
Treaties in 1815. In 1819, Whiteside served on the commission to select a new site for the Illinois State Capital, selecting Vandalia, Illinois
Vandalia, Illinois
Vandalia is a city in Fayette County, Illinois, United States, northeast of St. Louis, on the Kaskaskia River. From 1819 to 1839 it served as the state capital of Illinois. Vandalia was the western terminus of the National Road. Today it is the county seat of Fayette County and the home of the...
. He served in the Illinois General Assembly from 1819 to 1821. As General, Samuel Whiteside commanded the Illinois militia during the Black Hawk War
Black Hawk War
The Black Hawk War was a brief conflict fought in 1832 between the United States and Native Americans headed by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted soon after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis, and Kickapoos known as the "British Band" crossed the Mississippi River into the U.S....
in 1832. Capt. Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
led a company under his command. He commissioned Lincoln into the militia.
Whiteside was married to Nancy Miller and had nine children: Thomas, Nancy, Michael, Judith, Sarah, Joel, William Modrel, Samuel Ray and Elizabeth Ann. Brigadier General Samuel Whiteside died at his daughter Elizabeth Whiteside Henderson's home in Mt. Auburn, Christian County, Illinois
Christian County, Illinois
Christian County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 34,800, which is a decrease of 1.6% from 35,372 in 2000...
on January 3, 1866. He is buried at Hunter Cemetery, in Christian County.
Whiteside County, Illinois was named in honor of Samuel Whiteside.