Ewing who was a Union Army supporter, worked as a Republican Party organizer after the American Civil War.
[2] At the age of 15, he and one of his brothers traveled west, possibly to get away from a step-father; and visiting Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
[2] His brother William Ewing moved to Quincy, Illinois, which prompted Whitley to follow him there.
He left the state of Georgia in 1862, due to the American Civil War and his support of the Union Army.
[1][2] Ewing moved from Georgia to Gadsden, Alabama in the northeast of the state, and he continued practicing medicine.
[2][4] He finished third in a campaign for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for Alabama's 5th district in 1868, behind J. W. Burke and winner John B.