David Linton was born around 1831 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and worked as a laborer before the war. On July 1, 1864 he enlisted in the Union navy for three years at Skipwith’s Landing in Issaquena County, Mississippi. Officials listed his race as "black" and gave him the rating of landsman. It is not clear if he was a slave prior to enlistment. The navy assigned him to the USS Louisville, where he served alongside John Edwards and Henry Murray, two other Albemarle-born Black sailors. The War Department transferred the Louisville, an ironclad centerwheel gunboat, to the navy on October 1, 1862. By the time Linton joined her crew, she had returned to patrol and army support duty, and she remained there until being decommission on July 21, 1865. Linton's last muster roll is dated March 31, 1865, and he probably left the navy no later than the time of his ship’s decommissioning. He never filed a pension, and nothing is known about his post-war life.