Patrick H. White

Captain Patrick H. White, Chicago Mercantile Battery.

Reunions of Taylor's Battery, 18th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Donelson, February 14, 1880. 25th anniversary of the Battle of Belmont, November 6, 1886. (Public Domain).

Born in 1832, in County Sligo, Ireland, Patrick H. White eventually emigrated with his family to Chicago, Illinois, where he worked in a meat packing business and was instrumental with a local militia company. He was originally commissioned an officer in the 1st Illinois Light Artillery, Battery B, before being promoted to Captain of the Chicago Mercantile Battery in February 1863. The Chicago Mercantile Battery were veterans of several battles including Chickasaw Bayou and Arkansas Post before Captain White took command.

During the Vicksburg campaign, the battery fought at Thompson Hill (Port Gibson), Champion Hill (where one of the battery's guns is credited with the death of Confederate general Lloyd Tilghman), Big Black River Bridge, and the May 19th & 22nd assaults on the defenses of Vicksburg.

During the Union assaults on May 22, 1863, Brigadier General Andrew Jackson Smith called for an artillery battery to advance their guns to assist the infantry. White accepted the task and had several of his men drag a six-pounder cannon down and up the steep terrain to engage the Confederates. Aided by nearby Wisconsin soldiers, White and his band moved the gun into an embrasure of the 2d Texas Lunette and began firing, inflicting casualties and creating havoc for the Texans inside for several hours. When the assaults were pulled back, White and his cannoneers retreated, and the field piece was brought back to the Federal lines later in the day.

 

Patrick H. White after the war.

Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1908-1984) , Oct., 1922 - Jan., 1923, Vol. 15, No. 3/4 (Oct., 1922 - Jan., 1923), pp. 640-663 www.jstor.org/stable/40186945

The Chicago Mercantile Battery fired on the Confederate defenses throughout the remainder of the 47-day siege and went on to serve until the battery mustered out at the end of the war. Captain White was captured with many of his men at the Battle of Mansfield, Louisiana, during the Red River campaign in 1864. He eventually returned to his battery and mustered out in 1865. In 1895, White and several of his battery mates were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions on May 22, 1863 at Vicksburg.

After the war, White spent twenty years as an orderly in the New York State comptroller's office. He came back to Vicksburg National Military Park in 1903 to assist park commissioner William T. Rigby with locating the Chicago Mercantile Battery's positions and camp. The Vicksburg Evening Post newspaper noted White's enthusiasm visiting the battlefield, the aging captain reportedly stating, "I will be back again." It is not known if he did indeed come back to Vicksburg before his death in Albany, New York in 1915. He never saw his bronze relief portrait placed near the famous location where his exploits gained him the United States' highest military distinction for bravery.

 

Bronze relief portrait of Captain Patrick H. White, Chicago Mercantile Battery.

NPS Image

Captain, Chicago Mercantile Battery

Commanding Battery, Tenth Division, Thirteenth Corps.

Cost: Unknown

Sculptor: Unknown

Erected: 1917

Location: East of the 2d Texas Lunette on Confederate Avenue, west of Park Visitor Center.