Brigadier General, United States Army

He was the son of William H. Whitside and Martha Murray Whitside, both of Liverpool, England.
On November 24, 1868, he married Caroline P. McGavock, daughter of Dr. David T. McGavock.
Per the 1910 Census for Bethesda, Maryland, they were the parents of seven children with three living.

The Washington Post
Friday, December 16, 1904
Death of Gen. Whitside
Expires of Acute indigestion After a Brief Illness
Had Just Returned from Trip to Panama with Canal Commission
His Long Army Career.
General S.M. Whitside, United States Army, died suddenly at the Ebbitt House of acute indigestion yesterday morning. He had returned from Panama, where he had made a tour of the canal zone with the members of the commission. He reached the hotel Wednesday night at 9 o'clock and at 4:30 yesterday morning Dr. Burch was called in to relieve his intense suffering in the abdomen. A half hour later he was dead. Word was sent to the War Department and Captain Hutchinson, United States Army, took charge of the remains. Coroner Nevitt was notified and gave a certificate of natural death. The funeral arrangements will be made later by the family, who reside at Bethesda, Maryland.

Born in Canada, General Whitside began his career in the United States Army in 1858, when he enlisted as a Private in the general mounted service, shortly after being promoted to Sergeant Major. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was appointed Second Lieutenant of the Sixth Cavalry, three years later being promoted to First Lieutenant. He was brevetted Captain and Major in March 1865. During the war General Whitside was aid-de-camp to General McClellan and while in that capacity took part in all the battles of the Army of the Potomac. Afterward as aid to General Banks he took part in the operations before Port Hudson. He was aid under General Martindale, commanding the District of Washington and was also aid to General Pleasanton, commanding the Army of the Potomac. At Culpeper Court House he was severely wounded.

He had been mustering and disbursing officer in Rhode Island during a part of 1864 and when the war ended he mustered out some 30,000 troops of the Army of the Shenandoah. He afterward saw considerable service in the far West, serving with his regiment in Texas and Arizona. In 1871 he was on recruiting service in Philadelphia and in 1882 was detailed to Washington.

General Whitside was Brigadier General of Volunteers during the operations in Cuba in the Spanish-American War. He commanded the Department of Santiago. In October 1898, he was made Colonel of the Tenth Cavalry and served in that capacity until May 1902, when at his own request, he was placed on the retired list under the forty years' service clause. Since that time he has lived at his home in Maryland. He is survived by his widow and a son, First Lieut. Warren W. Whitside, of the Fifteenth Cavalry, recently stationed at Fort Myer and now with his regiment at Fort Ethan Allen, Vermont.