Daniel L. McDonald was born on April 20, 1840, in Moore County, North Carolina, to Neill and Margaret McDonald. His father was a farmer who owned $250 of real estate and $2,000 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Moore County, 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, 9 inches tall, with black hair and blue eyes. He was wounded in the Battle of New Bern in March 1862, when an artillery shell “tore of[f] the calf of his left leg.” He remained in a hospital for six months before Confederate officials granted him a furlough to return home. He mustered out on November 27, 1863.
He remained in McNeills, North Carolina, after the war and resumed his work as a farmer. By 1870, he owned $1,000 of real estate and $750 of personal property. He apparently never married, and he lived with his mother and sisters. He died of pneumonia in Raleigh, North Carolina, on February 25, 1920.