William Whistler, the major’s first-born, first saw the light of day in 1780 at Hagerstown, Md., and grew up with drums for his music and swords for his toys, and became a lieutenant in the army in 1801. He fought against Indians and British on the frontier with gallantry, and was badly wounded at the battle of Maguaga, Mich., in the year 1812. He passed through the various grades, fought in nearly every war the army was engaged in, and was retired with the rank of colonel of the Fourth United States infantry in 1861. Next to Gen. Winfield Scott, William Whistler was then the oldest soldier in the American army. William’s son, Joseph Nelson Garland Whistler, was, like his father, a soldier. He was graduated from the West Point Military Academy in 1846, served with distinction in the Mexican War and the Rebellion, and was colonel of the Fifteenth United States infantry, when he was placed on the retired list in 1886. George Washington Whistler, the father of the artist and writer of “the gentle art of making enemies,” was the second son of Maj. John Whistler. He was born on the ragged edge of civilization, in the shabby frontier post of Fort Wayne, in the territory of Indiana, on May 19, 1800. He traveled up and down the rough trails of the Western wilderness with his father’s regiment, receiving what education he could from his mother until he was sent, while yet a boy, to West Point. He had a well-developed talent for draughtsmanship, and was a man of refined and artistic tastes; he was a charming companion, and withal a handsome, soldierly gentleman. One of the brightest men ever turned out of West Point, he was graduated high in his class, and commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States artillery corps; but his engineering talents were utilized by the government in topographical surveys while in the service, except for the brief period when he was an assistant professor at the academy. One of the burning questions of those days of the early twenties was the frontier between the republic and the British dominions, our government claiming much that is still a fishing and hunting-ground in the province of New Brunswick; John Bull, with unerring instinct, seeking to push his lines south to include the country that has blossomed into the commonwealths of Iowa, Minnesota and the Dakotas.