William F. Whitney was a resident of Mansfield on August 25, 1862 when he enlisted as a Private in Co. B of the 15th Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry; he was captured April 20, 1864 at Plymouth, North Carolina, paroled March 26, 1865 and discharged June 19, 1865. He was imprisoned at Andersonville, Georgia for over seven months.

He was born about 1844 in Mansfield to John M. and Susan (Campbell) Whitney. His mother died in 1859 and he does not appear in any census with his father. There are many William Whitneys in census records and information to identify where he resided after the Civil War has not been found. John M. Whitney had remarried and moved to New Haven by 1870.

On June 13, 1891, John M. Whitney applied for a dependent father’s pension under No. 517,273. The pension was not granted, probably because he died on February 17, 1892. 

William F. Whitney died in 1890 and is buried at the Evergreen Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut near his father and stepmother.