Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/1251

NAME WHITEHEAD 1229 WHITING Amherst, Virginia. Dr. Whitehead died at his home in University, Virginia, February 6, 1916, of pneumonia. Jour. Amer. Med. Assoc, 1916, Ixvi, 589. Who's Who in America, 1914-1915, vol. viii. Whitehead, William Riddick (1831-1902) Born at Suffolk, Virginia, December IS, 1831, he was the son of William Boykin Whitehead of Southampton County, Virginia, of English descent and kinsman of William Whitehead, poet laureate of England, who emigrated during the reign of Cromwell. His father was a sugar planter in Louisiana, his mother was Miss Riddick of Suffolk, Virginia, descendant of Col. Willis Riddick of the Revolutionary War. He married his cousin, the daughter of Thomas Benton of Suffolk. In 1851 he graduated at the Virginia Mili- tary Institute at Lexington, studied medicine one year at the University of Virginia and graduated from the University of Pennsyl- vania in 1853. after which he studied medicine in Paris. Thence he went to Vienna and ap- plied to Gortchakoff, the Russian Ambassador to the Austrian Court, for a position as sur- geon in the Russian Army, then engaged in war with France, England and Turkey. The minister received him most graciously, secured him a Russian passport and gave him letters to his cousin. Prince Gortschakoff, the com- mander-in-chief of the armies of Southern Russia. His diploma was sent to St. Peters- burg and he was appointed staff surgeon and sent to Odessa where, for several months, he remained, enjoying the gay, fashionable life of officers in his position. At his request, he was assigned to active duty with the army at Sevastopol. On arrival, he found Dr. Tur- nipseed (q.v.), of South Carolina, ill with ty- phus fever and in the same room with the body of Dr. Draper of New York City, who had just died of the same disease, both in the service of Russia. Here Dr. Whitehead was under the guidance and teaching of the great surgeon, Pirogoff, who treated the young American surgeon with much kindness and consideration. On Pirogoff's recommendation at the close of the war. Dr. Whitehead was given, by order of the Emperor, the cross of Knight of the Imperial Russian Order of St. Stanislaus. Shortly before the treaty of peace, he was honorably discharged and returned immedi- ately to Paris and resumed his duties in its hospital and dissecting room. In 1860 he received the degree of M. D., de la Faculte de Paris; then returned to New York and was elected professor of clinical medicine in the New York Medical College. After the fall of Fort Sumter, he returned to his native state, Virginia, and was subse- quently appointed by Mr. Davis, surgeon of the Forty-fourth Virginia Infantrj'. He was present at the battle of Chancellorsville and put the wounded "Stonewall" Jackson in the ambulance and sent him to the rear. After the battle of Gettysburg he took charge of the wounded of Jackson's old corps, and on the retreat of the Confederates, the camp fell into the hands of the Federals who permitted Dr. Whitehead to remain in charge and fur- nished him with necessary supplies for the wounded. A month later, he, with others, was sent to Baltimore and imprisoned at Fort McHenry, instead of being exchanged as he anticipated. In the meantime, his cousin, to whom he was afterwards married, was living in Brooklyn, and obtained permission from Secretary Stan- ton to cross the lines into Virginia. Dr. White- head was informed of this and one dark night made his escape in citizen's clothes, scaling the brick walls across the peninsula, and the fol- lowing night was in Brooklyn, at the home of his betrothed. He left the next morning for Canada, visiting Toronto, Montreal and Quebec, and on to Bermuda, where he met Maj: Walker of Petersburg, Virginia, Con- federate quartermaster, who gave him a pass- age on a blockade runner destined for Wilmington, North Carolina, which was reached in safety. He went to Richmond and, after short leave of absence, during which time he was married, was appointed by Surg.- Gen. Moore, president of the board for exam- ination of recruits and disabled soldiers. At the close of the war he returned to New York and practised, chiefly as a surgeon, until 1872, when he went to Denver to spend the rest of his life, making occasional trips to Europe with his family. He had three children, Charles B., Frank, and Florence. He was a prolific contributor to medical periodicals and the inventor of the well-known, useful mouth-gag, which goes by his name. Many of his writings appeared in the col- umns of the New York Medical Record, the New York Medical Journal and the American Journal of the Medical Sciences between the years 1866 and 1886. The subject of operative treatment of the palate was what largely in- terested him. William W. Grant. Whiting, Joseph Bellamy (1822-1905) Descended from New England ancestors, he was born in Barkhamsted, Litchfield