Charles Whittlesey was a soldier, geologist

Geologist

A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...

 and an investigator of mounds relics

Mound builders

The group of cultures collectively called Mound Builders were prehistoric inhabitants of North America who constructed various styles of earthen mounds for religious and ceremonial, burial, and elite residential purposes...

 of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

Biography

Whittlesey graduated from the United States Military Academy

United States Military Academy

The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...

 in 1831, and was assigned to the 5th infantry. In 1832 he was stationed at Fort Howard, Wisconsin, and, after serving in 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....

, he resigned on 30 September of the same year. After studying law, he followed that profession in Cleveland

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

, and from 1836 to 1837, he was editorially connected with the Cleveland Herald.

In 1837 he was appointed assistant geologist of Ohio, under William W. Mather, and given charge of the topographical and mathematical parts of that survey, which disclosed the rich coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 and iron

Iron

Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...

 deposits of eastern Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

 that are the foundation of its manufacturing industries. At this time, he also carefully examined and measured several of the works of the mound builders, and his plans and notes of twenty of these remains were embodied in Davis

Edwin Hamilton Davis

Edwin Hamilton Davis was an American archaeologist and physician who did pioneering investigations of the mound relics in the Mississippi Valley.-Medical career:...

 and Squier

E. G. Squier

Ephraim George Squier was an American archaeologist and newspaper editor.-Biography:He was born in Bethlehem, New York, the son of a minister of English heritage and his Palatine German wife. In early youth he worked on a farm, attended and taught school, studied engineering, and became interested...

's Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley

Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley

Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley by Americans Ephraim George Squier and Edwin Hamilton Davis is a landmark in American scientific research, the study of the prehistoric Mound builders of North America, and the early development of archaeology...

(Washington, 1848).

From 1847 until 1851 he was engaged by the U. S. government in making a mineralogical and geological survey of the region about Lake Superior

Lake Superior

Lake Superior is the largest of the five traditionally-demarcated Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded to the north by the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Minnesota, and to the south by the U.S. states of Wisconsin and Michigan. It is the largest freshwater lake in the...

 and the upper Mississippi

Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...

. Subsequently he was professionally engaged as a mining engineer in Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, Wisconsin

Wisconsin

Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...

, and Minnesota

Minnesota

Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...

, and in 1858 became associated in the geological work of the survey of Wisconsin. In February 1861, he was enrolled in a company that tendered its services to Gen. Winfield Scott

Winfield Scott

Winfield Scott was a United States Army general, and unsuccessful presidential candidate of the Whig Party in 1852....

 to escort the president-elect, 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...

, to Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

.

He was made assistant quartermaster general on the staff of the governor of Ohio on 17 April 1861, and during the Western Virginia Campaign acted as chief engineer of the Ohio troops. At the expiration of his three-months' service he was appointed, on 15 August 1861, colonel

Colonel (United States)

In the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, colonel is a senior field grade military officer rank just above the rank of lieutenant colonel and just below the rank of brigadier general...

 of the 20th Ohio Infantry

20th Ohio Infantry

The 20th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Three-months regiment:...

, and detailed as chief engineer of the Department of the Ohio

Department of the Ohio

The Department of the Ohio was an administrative military district created by the United States War Department early in the American Civil War to administer the troops in the Northern states near the Ohio River.General Orders No...

, with charge of planning and constructing the defenses of Cincinnati. He was present at Fort Donelson

Battle of Fort Donelson

The Battle of Fort Donelson was fought from February 11 to February 16, 1862, in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. The capture of the fort by Union forces opened the Cumberland River as an avenue for the invasion of the South. The success elevated Brig. Gen. Ulysses S...

, where he led his regiment, and after the surrender was sent to the north in charge of over 10,000 prisoners. At the Battle of Shiloh

Battle of Shiloh

The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...

 he commanded the 3rd brigade of Maj. Gen. Lewis Wallace's division, but failing health compelled his retirement from active service, and he resigned on 19 April 1862.

He then resumed the geological exploration in the Lake Superior and upper Mississippi basin, and continued his literary labors. In 1867 he was active in the founding of the Western Reserve and Northern Ohio Historical Society, of which he was president until his death.

Works

His bibliography included about 200 titles. In addition to his reports for the geological surveys, he published in the “Smithsonian Contributions”:

• Descriptions of Ancient Works in Ohio (Washington, 1851)
• On Fluctuations of Level in the North American Lakes (1860)
• Ancient Mining on the Shores of Lake Superior (1863)
• On the Fresh-Water Glacial Drift in the Northwestern States (1866)

He is also the author of:

• Life of John Fitch, in Sparks's “American Biography” (Boston, 1845)
• Early History of Cleveland and Vicinity (Cleveland, 1867)