Bio & Incident Details
Age: 57
Tour: 2 days
Badge # Not available
Cause: Gunfire
Location: Pennsylvania
Incident Date: 9/11/1851
Weapon: Gun; Unknown type
Suspect: Not available
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Posseman Edward Gorsuch was shot and killed near Christiana, Pennsylvania, in an incident that became known as the Christiana Riots.
He had been deputized by a deputy marshal to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act of 1851 in an attempt to capture two escaped slaves from Maryland. After reading the arrest warrant at the home an alarm was sounded and a group of local Quakers surrounded the posse. A shot was fired by one of the sides that prompted several more shots to be fired. Posseman Gorsuch was killed. The deputy marshal and three other posse members were wounded.
Posseman Gorsuch had been deputized by the United States Marshals Service two days earlier to assist with serving the warrant. He is buried in the Gorsuch family Cemetery, Baltimore, Maryland.
