Died in the Civil War. 4th Infantry, Company F.
Private.
Wounded at Chickasaw Bluffs.
Could have had wife Elizabeth and infant daughter Ida P.
borsborn@juno.com, Thursday, August 28, 2003
Philip Orsborn's Union Army in the 4th Iowa Infantry was covered in the paper I did on him. He must have felt throughout the summer of 1862 that he should be doing something to help keep the Union together as he enlisted in August 1862 at Winterset, Iowa, and reported for duty in September. He was in two major engagements, what is known as the battle for Milligans Bend, north of Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, and the battle for Chickasaw Bluffs, fought in December, 1862. He was not wounded but fell from exhaustion due to his weakened condition from being ill most of the time he was in. He died on a Hospital Ship on the Mississippi River in February 1863. His body, and 4 or 5 others who died, were taken ashore and buried on the bank of the river. It is not known if his body was ever reburied. If it was, he is buried among the unknowns at Vicksburg Nat'l Cemetery, or in Mound City Nat'l Cemetery, in the southern tip of Indiana, at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. There are over 2,000 uknowns buried there. There is no grave for him at hte Kivett cemetery in Macksburg. I retyped Philip's Civil War letters after Bob James and I combined the ones that had been left to us. I have yet to merge them with Philip's story. I will attach them to this email and you can read them at your leisure. Keep in mind that Elizabeth was pg with their 4th child at the time he enlisted. I have to believe that had to have caused quite a bit of discussion in the Orsborn household in Macksburg at the time. Love, Bill Orsborn.
