Charles Edmondson Thorburn was born on November 24, 1831, in Norfolk, Virginia, to James and Anne Thorburn. His father died in June 1835. He enrolled in the “academical department” at Delaware College in 1846. He served as a midshipman on the U.S.S. Cumberland during the Mexican American War. He later attended the United States Naval Academy, graduating in 1853 and becoming a naval officer.
He traveled to Egypt to help secure camels for the army’s experimental Camel Corps, and he was surveyed the harbors of Japan in 1858. He married Rebecca F. Reid in Norfolk on January 12, 1857, and they had at least six children: Charles, born around 1862; Annie, born around 1864; Lucretia, born around 1865; Belle, born around 1868; Susan, born around 1872; and Harriet, born around 1877. By 1860, he had become a naval lieutenant.
Thorburn resigned by the spring of 1861, and he became a major in the 50th Virginia Infantry on July 3, 1861. He eventually became a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate artillery. He resigned in November 1863. He then served as a purchasing agent for the Confederate navy, reportedly travelling to London and Paris “on Confederate business.” Thorburn settled in New York City after the war and earned a living as a stock broker. He died there on October 26, 1909.