Funeral services were held in the Anglican (Episcopal) Church in St. Petersburg.  His body was soon afterward carried to Boston and deposited beneath St. Paul’s Church; but the final interment took place at Stonington.  The kindness and attention of the Emperor and of all with whom Major Whistler had been associated knew no bounds.  Everything was done to comfort and aid his wife, and when she left St. Petersburg the Emperor sent her in his private barge to the mouth of the Baltic.  “It was not only,” says one who knew him weil, “through his skill, ability, and experience as an engineer that Major Whistler was particularly qualified for and eminently successful in the important task he performed so well in Russia.  His military training and bearing, his polished manner, good humor, sense of honor, knowledge of a language (French) in which he could converse with officers of the government, his resolution in adhering to what he thought was right, and in meeting difficulties only to surmount them, with other admirable personal qualities, made him soon, and during his whole residence in Russia, much liked and trusted by all persons by whom he was known, from the Emperor down to the peasant.  Such is the reputation he left behind him, and which is given to him in Russia to this day.”

In 1849 the firm of Winans, Harrison and Eastwick had already furnished the road with 162 locomotives, 72 passenger and 2,580 freight cars.  They had also arranged to instruct a suitable number of Russian mechanics to take charge of the machinery when completed.  The road was finished its entire length in 1850, being opened for passenger and freight traffic on the 25th of September of that year, in two divisions, experimentally, and finally opened for through business on November 1, 1851.  In all of its construction and equipment it was essentially American of the best kind, everything being made under a carefully devised system, by which the greatest economy in maintenance and in management should be possible.  The use of standard patterns, uniformity in design and duplication of parts was applied, not only to the rolling stock, but to the railroad as well, wherever it was possible.  Indeed, the whole undertaking in all its parts bore the impress of one master mind.

On the death of Major Whistler the government with jealous care prevented any changes whatever being made in his plans, including those which had not been carried out as well as those already in process of execution.  An American engineer, Major T.S.  Brown, was invited to Russia to succeed Major Whistler as consulting engineer.  The services of the Messrs. Winans also were so satisfactory to the government that a new contract was afterward made, upon the completion of the road, for the maintenance and the future construction of rolling stock.