Hugh Martin McDonald
Hugh Martin McDonald was born on May 7, 1840, in Moore County, North Carolina, to Donald and Mary McDonald. His father was a tailor who owned $4,000 of real estate and $4,50 of personal property by 1860. McDonald grew up and attended school in Moore County, North Carolina, and by the early 1860s, he was working as a farmer.
He enlisted in the Confederate army on September 12, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company C of the 35th North Carolina Infantry on November 6. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 8½ inches tall, with red hair and blue eyes. The regiment took part in the Seven Days’ Battles and the Battle of Antietam.
He fell ill with diarrhea in November 1862, and he remained in a hospital in Farmville, Virginia, until January 10, 1863. He was promoted to corporal on March 1, 1863. McDonald remained devoted to the Confederate cause. In September 1863, he confessed that it was “very hard to have to stay in the ware so long.” He insisted, however, that “rather than to give upt to the yankes now on eney conditions I wold rather stay in the ware all my life time…I had rather die in defence of my country than to quit it as it is now.” Union forces captured him near Petersburg, Virginia, on June 17, 1864, and he was imprisoned at Point Lookout, Maryland, and Elmira, New York. He swore an oath of allegiance to the Union on June 12, 1865.
McDonald settled in La Grange, North Carolina, after the war, and he earned a living as a druggist. He married Harriet Hall on October 28, 1880, and their son Alexander was born around 1883. They lived in Moseley Hall, North Carolina. He died on November 30, 1912.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (3273) | McDonald, Hugh Martin | 1840-05-07 | 1912-11-30 |
- Conflict Side: Confederacy
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Private
- Rank out: Corporal
- Rank highest: Corporal
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 8
- (8824) [writer] ~ Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 11 March 1864
- (8829) [writer] ~ Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 25 November 1863
- (8830) [writer] ~ Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 12 September 1863
- (8831) [writer] ~ Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 17 August 1863
- (8832) [writer] ~ Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 16 July 1863
- (8833) [writer] ~ Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 15 June 1863
- (8834) [writer] ~ Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 27 May 1863
- (8835) [writer] ~ Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 6 June 1862
People - Records: 3
- (3273) McDonald, Hugh Martin is the [cousin of] (3233) McDonald, Sarah Jane
Places - Records: 1
- (2303) [birth] ~ Moore County, North Carolina
Regiments - Records: 1
- (919) [enlisted] [C] ~ 35th North Carolina Infantry
SOURCES
1850, 1860, 1880, 1900, and 1910 United States Federal Censuses, available from Ancestry.com; Military Service Records of Hugh M. McDonald, available from Fold3.com; North Carolina Marriage Records, 1741-2011, available from Ancestry.com; Hugh M. McDonald to Sarah J. McDonald, 12 September 1863, DL1485A.006, Nau Collection.
