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F.A. Donaldson
(1840 - 1928)
Home State: Pennsylvania
Command Billet: Commanding Company
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Antietam
He had been earlier in the 71st Pennsylvania Infantry ("First California"), as a Sergeant in Company H. He saw action at Ball's Bluff on 21 October 1861 where he was captured and imprisoned in Richmond. He was exhanged in February 1862 and returned for service on the Peninsula, and was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant of Company M. He was wounded in the arm in action at Fair Oaks on 31 May 1862. On his recovery, he accepted the commission as Captain, Company H of the new 118th Pennsylvania Infantry.
The rest of the War
He was discharged in January 1864.
References & notes
Basic information from Donaldson1, with the picture - an engraving from a photograph - in Smith2. His burial place online from Findagrave. His collected letters published in 1998. His brother John P. Donaldson was Captain of Company H of the 22nd Virginia Infantry.
Birth
06/07/1840; Philadelphia, PA
Death
05/03/1928; burial in West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala Cynwyd, PA
1 Donaldson, Francis Adams, and J. Gregory Acken, editor, Inside the Army of the Potomac: The Civil War Experience of Captain Francis Adams Donaldson, Mechanicsburg (PA): Stackpole Books, 1998, pp. 115 - 142 [AotW citation 2192]
2 Smith, John L., and Survivor's Association, History of the Corn Exchange Regiment, 118th Pennsylvania Volunteers, 2nd Edition, Philadelphia: J.L. Smith, Map Publisher, 1905, pg. 197 [AotW citation 2244]