Philip Jasper Letsinger

(1838 - 1862)
Home State: Indiana
Command Billet: Corporal
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 14th Indiana Infantry

Before the Antietam Campaign:
Philip Letsinger mustered into Company D of the 14th Indiana on 17 June 1861 for a three year term at Terre Haute, and was from Greene County. He and the regiment saw service in Western Virginia into the Spring of 1862, then joined the Army of the Potomac at the tail end of the Peninsular Campaign. He was appointed Corporal sometime before Antietam.

In the Antietam Campaign:
On 17 September 1862 the 14th Indiana was in the vanguard of Frenchís Divisionís assault on the center of the Confederate line in the Sunken Road at Antietam. More than 55% of the Indiana boys were casualties in that fierce combat ñ from about 320 present, 150 were wounded and 30 killed. Among those killed was Philip Letsinger.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Photograph here is from a tintype taken with his brother William, probably in 1861, from the Liljenquist Collection at the Library of Congress. Service data from a roster of Company D, 14th Indiana, transcribed and hosted online by Terry Conners. The 1850 Federal Census for Greene County, Indiana lists him at 12 years old and one of 11 children in the family.

Birth State: KY
Death Date: 09/17/1862 Death Place: Sharpsburg, MD

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