James Joseph White (1839-1923)
Irish-American Veteran of Indian War

Born 18 February 1839, James White, a carpenter from Dublin, came to the United States with his father and brother. Shortly thereafter the father died and was buried in New York City. The brothers became separated and never saw each other again.

White joined the United States Army (perhaps the cause of the separation?) and enlisted for four additional terms, serving a total of twenty-five years from 1871 to 1896, when he was discharged with a surgeon's certificate of disability. He wrote that he served with General Miles in the great expedition near Manitoba, Canada, and after Sitting Bull and his warriors; in the uprising in 1881 on Poplar River in Montana; and in the expedition in the Bad Lands in South Dakota 1891-1892. While in the mountains in Dakota in the deep snow and extreme cold, he contracted rheumatism with resulting disease of the heart and eyes. At Ft. Keogh, Montana, about 1892, he became affected with eczema, which became chronic. He received marksmanship certificates in 1885 (Headquarters Department of the Missouri, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas), and in 1888, 1892 and 1894 (Headquarters Department of Dakota).

Dates of enlistment and discharge and locations, followed by the names of officers on the discharge papers, are as follows:

26 Jun 1869, Ft. Randall, Dakota Territory; 26 Jun 1874, New York, NY

lst Lieutenant. James S. King's Company A of the Permanent General Recruiting Service [?}; Robert A. Crofton [?], Major, 17th Infantry Commanding and [for character] James I. Cany, 1st Lieutenant., 12th Infantry Commanding, G Co., 22nd Regt., Inf.

24 Sep 1875, Ft. Brady, MI; 19 July 1881, Ft. Keogh, MT

General Services, J.S.G. Whistler, Lieutenant Colonel, Infantry Commanding and [for character] Charles E. Butier [?], Captain, Infantry, Co. C, 5th Regt, Inf.

29 Sep 1881, New York, NY; 28 Sep 1886, Ft. Lyon, CO

Company C, 5th Infantry

29 Sep 1886, Ft. Lyon, CO; 28 Sep 1891, Ft. Keogh, MT

Company G, 22nd Infantry; P. T. Swaine [?], Colonel, 22nd Infantry Commanding and [for character] John Green Ballance, 1st Lieutenant, 22nd Infantry

20 Oct 1891, Ft. Keogh, MT; 4 May 1896, Ft. Keogh, MT

Company G, 22nd Regiment of Infantry; James I. [or S?] Cany, Colonel, 22nd Infantry Commanding and [for character] John Green Ballance, Captain, 22nd Infantry

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Discharge papers described him as 5'7", ruddy or fair complexed, with grey or blue or light blue eyes, and grey or white hair, and by 1st Lieutenant John Ballance as a "very good--obedient and willing solider."

John Wilcox served for three years with James White in Company G, 22nd, US Infantry. Without a doubt he invited White, now free from military service, to visit his family in Elk Park, North Carolina, and White married his host's sister, Minnie Wilcox, in Shell Creek, Tennessee on 18 April 1897, a Rev. Putman officiating. Their son died at childbirth or in infancy. James and Minnie probably moved to Johnson City, Tennessee in 1899, the year that Margaret was born. James Joseph Jr. was born in 1906. The Whites lived on Chestnut Street. James White was employed for fifteen years at the National Soldiers Home in Johnson City as a janitor or, as one census indicated, a florist, and he died at the National Sanitorium hospital 22 May 1923.

Minnie then married Edward Mitchell Lewis, and after his death she married Hugh J. Manus, who died about 1941 or 1942. Minnie died 14 May 1964.

James Joseph Jr. in 1976 wrote that his father lived to be 84 years of age, having been born on 18 February 1839. He seems to have enlisted at age 30, but claiming his age to be 21.

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