Tribute to David Adrian McDonald, CSA soldier,
1815-1862
Exerpts from dedication speech at Oakwood Cemetery, Richmond,
Virginia, 2004 by his great-great-great-granddaughter, Diane Sanfilippo.
"When I first began my search, I had nothing more than
a few sheets of badly worn paper where my grandmother had written down her
family tree, however thanks to the internet, it was far less difficult. When I say internet, I mean the free GenWeb
project and their volunteers who work continuously to bring us the census,
tax lists, veterans' lists, websites and so much more to aid in our research. My own journey was paved with deeds from kind
friends, to include David's record of service! I think I now know him as much as my own family, having spent years
searching. This journey first led
me to the Banks County, Georgia, GenWeb site, where I met two friends who
remain dear to this day.
David McDonald was born (Feb. 8, 1815) in present-day Banks
County, Georgia, the oldest son of James McDonald's second marriage (Nancy
Bailey Mize), and was fourteen years of age, with four younger siblings at
home, when his father, James, a Revolutionary soldier, was called Home.
David married at twenty (Huldah Quailes), and tried his hand
at farming, but without the income to buy and sell land, as his father had
done before him, David decided country life was not for him, and headed for
the city. This city was Athens, Georgia,
where he found a position as supervisor of laborers. Here his family thrived, and he
and Huldah added their ninth, and final child, David Adrian McDonald, Jr.,
to their family. Their daughter, Nancy,
married and soon had a child, then Martha Jane and Sarah Elizabeth married,
and then there was the War.
All the young men were eager to fight for what they believed
to be their right to self-government, and many either rode or walked away
from their families, their businesses, their lives, never to be seen or heard
from again. However, it was a grand
and noble cause, and David, at 46 years of age, along with his oldest son,
James, sons-in-law, Mr. Wood and James White, joined Troup's Artillery, formed
around a cannon given to them by the City of Athens.
I can just hear Huldah McDonald now, 'You old fool! Don't you know that war is for young men?'
At least that is how I imagine her realization that the decent wages
that David earned were gone, at least for now, and maybe forever.
David fought through the Shenandoah campaign, the Battle
of Williamsburg, and several others before, ill and tired, he was admitted
to the Chimborazo Hospital #3 at Richmond, weak with dysentery. Now 47, David was told he was discharged due
to old age, but unable to summon the strength to carry himself home, he curled
up on a cot in a corner of the hospital where it took him two months to die,
finally succumbing to a staph infection in his skin, and I am sure the rest
of his body as well.
Since David died in the middle of the Peninsula Campaign,
he was buried in a common trench, in a plain pine box, three soldiers to a
gravesite. It was on the Oakwood Cemetery's
website where I found him; with the first thought to move his bones back the
McDonald Cemetery with his father. However,
after visiting here (Oakwood Cemetery), and seeing for myself how quiet and
beautiful it is, I was thankful he was not buried at Hollywood Cemetery, where
the dead were strewn about. The markers
here are in perfect symmetry as in all National Cemeteries, and the graves
are not difficult to find.
Therefore, I am satisfied. David Adrian McDonald now has a marker, and is no longer 'unidentified',
and he is rendered a final tribute, long overdue. Thus ends a quest for peace
for an old soldier.
Day is done, gone the sun. Soldier rest."
Copyright 2004 by Diane Sanfilippo
Copyright 2004
Vicky Chambers & Jacqueline King
