David Burhans was born in 1839 in Bethlehem, New York, to David and Rachel Burhans. His father was a farmer who died in 1858. He grew up and attended school in Bethlehem, and by the early 1860s, he was working as a mail agent with the Hudson River Railroad. He reportedly received a salary of $800 per year, and he contributed $500 of this “to the support of his mother and younger brothers.”

 

In September 1862, he received a commission as a captain in Company H of the 43^rd New York Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign. He was reported missing in action after the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 10, 1864. According to one witness, “when the regiment fell back the captain was lying on his back…to all appearances dead.”

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