David Runyon Burgess was born on November 28, 1830, in Liberty, Indiana. By 1850, he was probably living in Stephenson County, Illinois. He married Laura Ann Hall in the 1850s, and they had at least two children: Charles, born around 1857; and Clarence, born around 1858. They moved to Eden, Iowa, in the 1850s, and Burgess worked as a wagon maker. By 1860, he owned $200 of personal property. He apparently moved to Ridott, Illinois, in the early 1860s and found work as a millwright.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 14, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 92^nd Illinois Infantry on September 4. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8¾ inches tall, with light hair and gray eyes. He spent part of the winter of 1862-63 stationed in Kentucky, where he expressed frustration with his commanding officers. He insisted there were “not ten men in the 92[nd Illinois] but if their discharge was offered them today would take it and start for home tomorrow.”

 

By 1864, however, the army had transferred him to the Mississippi Marine Brigade, which he found more to his liking. Writing in October 1864, he resolved to “live easier [after the war] than I ever did before I joined the Army. If I can’t then I will join the Army for life. For of this much I am certain I can get my board and clothes and a little money, and with the Home you have now and it paid for I know the monthly wages will board and clothe the Family even if I can’t be with them all the time.” He dismissed emancipation as “the [n----r] question” and expressed contempt for abolitionists. Nonetheless, he remained fiercely loyal to the Union, observing that southern sympathizers were “even as despicable” as abolitionists.

 

By 1874, Burgess was living in Sacramento, California, and he moved to Yolo, California, around 1875. By 1886, he was living in San Diego, California. He applied for a federal pension in April 1885 and eventually secured one. He died in California on March 17, 1894.

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