Philip 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 George Washington for his care of the sick during the winters of 1777 and 1778. He contracted the prevalent "camp fever", which so affected his sight and hearing that he was obliged to resign in 1780. Before that 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 was placed on the pension roll in 1818 for service as Surgeon's Mate in the Virginia Continental line. He married ESTHER MORDECAI, daughter of Mordecai Moses Mordecai and Zipporah de Lyon on 01 Nov 1780. HIS OBITUARY published in Paulson's American Daily Advertiser, pg 3, on 13 Aug 1830: 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 endeavour to follow. Well may it be applied to him ---- "An honest man's the noblest work of God."
Philip 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 George Washington for his care of the sick during the winters of 1777 and 1778. He contracted the prevalent "camp fever", which so affected his sight and hearing that he was obliged to resign in 1780. Before that 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 was placed on the pension roll in 1818 for service as Surgeon's Mate in the Virginia Continental line. He married ESTHER MORDECAI, daughter of Mordecai Moses Mordecai and Zipporah de Lyon on 01 Nov 1780. HIS OBITUARY published in Paulson's American Daily Advertiser, pg 3, on 13 Aug 1830: 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 endeavour to follow. Well may it be applied to him ---- "An honest man's the noblest work of God."
Bio by: Ruby Mordecai
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