An accomplished physician and soldier from the state of West Virginia, he was killed in action in the Shenandoah Valley at the Battle of Cedar Creek.

He relocated in 1849 to Brownsville, Pennsylvania, where he briefly partnered in a medical practice before resigning to accept an appointment in Columbus at the Ohio Lunatic Asylum as an assistant to the chief physician.

[3] After the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in April 1861, the following month Thoburn enlisted as the surgeon of the 1st Virginia Infantry, a three-months regiment under Colonel Benjamin F. Kelley.

During the Battle of Opequon or Third Winchester, as the XIX Corps was reorganizing its lines, Thoburn's division came up from reserve and took position at the edge of a woods.

The Union lines advanced, and, as one participant recalled, "For thirty minutes the battle that ensued was perfectly terrific, but then the forces in our front gave way, and in an instant we were over their works, and after them with yells and shouts of victory.

"[5] A biographer later wrote, "Dr. Thoburn was greatly beloved by his brother officers and men, as a man full of kindness and benevolence, and of undoubted bravery and patriotism.

Wood Cemetery with a public procession including city officers, council, medical faculty, military escort and many citizens.