Isaac White was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, on January 29, 1837. He graduated in 1859 from the Medical College of Virginia. He married Mary Virginia Day (1840-1922) on November 6, 1860. He and Mary bore two sons, John Day White (1864-1923), and George White.

During the American Civil War on May 27, 1861, White was commissioned as an assistant surgeon in the Virginia Active Volunteer Forces, with the rank of captain. He was appointed as an assistant surgeon in the Confederate Army on September 2, 1861, and served in the 31st Virginia Infantry Regiment until his resignation on December 6, 1861. On May 13, 1862, he was appointed a major in the 29th Virginia Infantry Regiment, effective until his resignation on October 18, 1862. He served as acting assistant surgeon in Montgomery White Sulphur Springs Hospital (a resort before and after the war) in Montgomery County, Virginia, from September 8, 1862, until January 8, 1863. He was appointed assistant surgeon in the 62nd Virginia Regiment Mounted Infantry on March 24, 1863. It is unknown when he ended his service with this regiment. White was captured on December 10, 1864, and taken as a prisoner of war, until he was released at Camp Hamilton, Virginia, on January 6, 1865.

After the war, White was a resident physician at Montgomery White Sulphur Springs and Allegheny Springs resorts, and wrote for the Lynchburg and Richmond newspapers describing the history and social conditions of the local resorts as they were in the their glory days. Isaac White died on August 3, 1889, at his home in Shawsville, Virginia, and is buried in the family graveyard on the property.