Was Alice Whiting Waterman Related to Gen. W.H.C. Whiting?

Her maiden name being Whiting sparked my interest.  Could she have been the sister of Gen. W.H.C. Whiting of Fort Fisher?

She was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1820.  Gen.Whiting was born March 22, 1824, in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Gen. Whiting's father was Levi Whiting an officer in the 1st U.S. Artillery Regiment who was stationed in the south in the 1820s and was at Fort Pickens, guarding Pensacola, Florida, which was commanded by William Henry Chase.  (perhaps that accounted for W.H.C.'s name?

His father was transferred back north and I did read that Whiting's sister, brother and mother attended his funeral in New York City in 1865.

Maybe I'll Find Out a Family Connection?  --Old Secesh

Mrs. Waterman's "Boys"

Article by Thompson in the Wisconsin Magazine of History, Autumn 2008, Vol. 92, Issue 1, page 14.

Alice Whiting Waterman was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1820 and moved to New York City at age ten.  In 1868, she moved to Madison, Wisconsin, and tended to the graves in Confederate Rest until her death in 1897.

In 1906, the UDC erected a monument to her for her many years of service to Confederate dead.

--Old Secesh

Forest Hill Cemetery: Alice Waterman

Her middle name was Whiting and she was born near the time Confederate General W.H.C. Whiting was born and I am wondering if perhaps she was the sister of the general.

I haven't found out much about her, however.  What I have found out:

ALICE WHITING WATERMAN  (Oct. 18, 1820-September 13, 1897)

Born Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  A marker for her was erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy reading: "The patron saint of Confederate Rest.  Almost single-handedly restored the Confederate cemetery at Forest Hill.  A native of New Orleans, she found the tombstones in 1868 lying amid weeds and spent 30 years maintaining the plot, planting trees and hedges, and marking the graves.  When she died in 1897, she was buried their with "Her Boys."

--Old Secesh

Forest Hill Cemetery-- Part 3: Alice Waterman

Every Memorial Day, U.S.flags are placed on Union graves.  The flags of their state are placed on the graves of the Confederates.

One of those Confederate graves is not of a soldier as I mentioned in the last post.  It is the grave of Alice Waterman.  By her request, after her death in 1897, she was buried at Confederate Rest with the men she had never known in life, but whom she always referred to as "My Boys."

--Old Secesh

Forest Hill Cemetery-- Part 2: Alice Waterman Arrives

In 1868, Alice Waterman, a widow from Louisiana, moved to Madison.  Despite having lived most of her life in the North and not knowing any of the interred Confederates, she took pity on them and removed the weeds, improved the landscaping and maintained the lot at her own expense.

She placed new headboards on the graves.

Mrs. Waterman referred to the dead as "My Boys."

She had her body buried with "her boys" at her request upon her death

Today, the City of Madison takes care of Confederate Rest and Mrs. Waterman.

--Old Secesh