Edward was born in Seneca, Kansas on the 15th of January, 1877, and he enlisted in the US Army in 1898. He was a Private with Company B of the 20th Kansas Volunteer Infantry when he displayed actions in Luzon that would earn him the Medal of Honor. The citation reads:

Swam the Rio Grande de Pampanga in face of the enemy's fire and fastened a rope to occupied trenches, thereby enabling the crossing of the river and the driving of the enemy from his fortified position.

Edward mustered out of the Army in 1899 and received his Medal of Honor on the 11th of March, 1902. He became a firefighter in Kansas City, Kansas, which he did until a medical retirement in 1905. Edward White died of tuberculosis on the 3rd of December, 1908 at the age of 31 and he is buried in Mount Calvary Cemetery in Kansas City, Kansas: Section 1 – Old, Lot S-N 1, Space 1.