Philip Moses Russell
Surgeon's Mate, Virginia Continental Line

Philip Moses Russell was born in July 1747 in England.

Russell was a Jewish Revolutionary soldier who enlisted in 1775 and served as a Surgeon's Mate and Surgeon. During the Valley Forge Campaign, he was temporarily attached to the 2nd Virginia Regiment, where he received a commendation from General George Washington for his care of the sick during the winters of 1777-78. In 1779, he and a group of 6 other Jews volunteered as guides to lead the American forces through the woods and swamps in a surprise attempt to recapture British-held Savannah, GA. He contracted the prevalent "camp fever," which so affected his sight and hearing that he was obliged to resign in 1780. He was placed on the pension roll in 1818 for service as Surgeon's Mate in the Virginia Continental line.

His obituary published in Paulson's American Daily Advertiser, page 3, on 13 August 1830 said: "Departed this life Tuesday evening at a quarter past eleven o'clock at his residence in the Northern Liberties, Philip M. Russell, Esq. At the advanced age of ninety years, a man who served his country with fidelity and honor as an officer during the whole of the Revolutionary War, and discharged since then all the duties of a private citizen with an exemplary exactness. Charitable without ostentation, disinterested in his friendships and pious without bigotry, he has left to a large posterity, consisting of ten children and 30 grandchildren an example which should ever be their pride and endeavor to follow. Well may it be applied to him ---- "An honest man's the noblest work of God." 

Personal

He married Esther Mordecai, daughter of Mordecai Moses Mordecai and Zipporah de Lyon, on 1 November 1780.

Death and Burial

Philip Moses Russell died on 11 August 1830 in Pennsylvania. He is buried at Mikyeh Israel Cemetery in Philadelphia, PA.