Ebensperger, Clarence William
Army Private 1st Class

Clarence William Ebensperger from New York, Oneida county.

Service era: Korea

Date of death: Sunday, July 16, 1950
Death details: On the evening of July 15, 1950, the U.S. Army’s 19th Infantry Regiment held defensive positions along the south bank of the Kum River. As dusk approached, North Korean People’s Army (NKPA) tanks appeared on the opposite shore and began firing on the U.S. positions. Although U.S. troops repulsed the attacks that evening, the next morning the NKPA crossed the river and launched a major attack against the 19th Regiment. As the regiment began withdrawing south to Taejon, the North Koreans pushed deep into their defensive lines and set up a roadblock en route to Taejon. When retreating American convoys could not break through the roadblock, soldiers were forced to leave the road and attempt to make their way in small groups across the countryside. Of the 900 soldiers in the 19th Infantry when the Battle of Kum River started, only 434 made it to friendly lines. Corporal Clarence William Ebensperger entered the U.S. Army from New York and served with Company G, 2nd Battalion, 19th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division. He was captured on July 16, 1950 during the Battle of Kum River, while his unit attempted to withdraw to Taejon. Corporal Ebensperger was one of many prisoners of war (POW) marched north to Seoul and held in former Japanese schoolhouses, where the names of POWs were recorded on blackboards. He continued north to Pyongyang, North Korea, and then reached Manpo where he became mortally ill but continued further north toward Chungung, one of three ?Apex? camps near the border with China. Varying reports state he died of his illness or was shot and left by the roadside before reaching the Chasong pass, halfway between Manpo and Chungung. His remains were not recovered or identified following the conflict and he is still unaccounted-for. Today, Corporal Ebensperger is memorialized on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.

Source: National Archives, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency