Whiting Wyllys was a resident of Mansfield on August 18, 1862 when he enlisted as a Private in Co. D of the 21st Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry; he died January 18, 1863 in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The March 6, 1863 issue of The Willimantic Journal reported that “E. C. Wyllys, son of Mr. Bennett Wyllys of Mansfield, a member of the 21st Reg’t recently died of fever in the hospital at Falmouth. His remains reached home on Friday last and his funeral was attended on Tuesday afternoon.”
The descriptive muster roll of the 21st Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry lists his age as 18 and his occupation as farmer. He is described as 5’ 8” tall with a light complexion and blue eyes and light hair. His marital status is single.
He was born about 1844 in Windham, Connecticut to Bennett and Frances L. _____ Wyllys. In the 1860 U.S. census in Mansfield, he is a 16 year old farm laborer in the household of Bennett Wyllys.
Frances L. Wyllys applied for a dependent mother’s pension in 1869, No. 171,249 that was granted under certificate No. 133,363. According to the list of pensioners on the roll in 1883, Frances L. Wyllys was receiving a pension of $8 per month as a dependent mother that commenced in August 1869.
Whiting S. Wyllys was about 19 when he died; he is buried at the Chewink Cemetery in Chaplin, Connecticut.