United States Army Captain Linn died of typhoid fever at the Union Army Camp, barely two months after enlisting during the Civil War.

An 1860 graduate of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., Alphonso Linn acted as a tutor at Northwestern until May 1864, when he volunteered to lead Northwestern students in Company F (the "University Guards") of the 134th Regiment of Illinois Infantry. Captain Linn trained his fellow volunteers on campus prior to their deployment.

At the time of his death, he was engaged to be married to Jennie Wheeler, one of his fellow students at Northwestern University. Motivated by patriotism (his epitaph, "I consider the perpetuity of our country of more value than my life," are adapted from words that he told his father, that he "valued the perpetuity of the government more than he did his life."), he personally organized the University Guards and trained them on campus. His date of enlistment was 31 May 1864.

Captain Linn is survived by his parents, George Russell Linn and Abigail Stinson Linn and sister, Mary Rebecca Linn Shaw.

Also, Alphonso and his sister Mary Rebecca had many siblings. Alphonso was the seventh child of 10 (seven sons and three daughters). Alphonso was survived by his sister Mary Rebecca as well as six brothers and two other sisters.