Each Memorial Day I take time to remember close family members who gave their life during wars that our country fought. I now add another person to this list as I have found out more information about my 3rd Great Uncle David O. Darling.

David was the youngest brother of my 2nd Great Grandmother Nancy Jane Darling who is in the picture above with my 2nd Great Grandfather Benjamin Hotchkiss.

David O. Darling was the youngest son of David Darling and Abigail Whitman and had six sisters and one brother.

David enlisted in the 1st Michigan Volunteers, Company B on July 18, 1861.

David mustered in on July 21 in Jackson, Michigan. He had previously been working as a farm laborer for the Irwin family in nearby Brooklyn, Michigan.

The regiment left Michigan in September to join Hooker’s Brigade in Washington, D.C. where they were to guard railways.

On October 4, 1861 David passed away from meningitis. There was a meningitis epidemic that had hit the troops in Washington, D.C. causing the death of many young soldiers. Unfortunately many diseases ravished troops during the Civil War and caused more deaths than those suffered in combat. David was buried in the United States Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home National Cemetery as it is known today. The cemetery had been establish just a few months earlier after the Battle of Bull Run and was the first National Cemetery.

I can only imagine the reaction that the family had to the news that their son and brother had passed away just shortly after he went off to war. It must have been a very hard time for the family.

The family has a history of military service. His father David Darling, shown above, had fought in the War of 1823 and his grandfather David Darling had fought in the Revolutionary War.

His only brother, Henry Whitman Darling, enlisted in 1862 after moving to Millersburg, Iowa and served with another of my 3rd Great Uncles. See: Memorial Day Remembrances

Steven

WWRI – Written With Real Intelligence