Daniel McConnell

Daniel McConnell was born on March 17, 1827 in Newbury, England.

The son of a dissenting Methodist clergyman, Daniel came to the United States from England with his father and four brothers in 1832, when he was five years old, and settled in Rochester, New York, where he was apprenticed to a local jeweler at the age of 11, a which trade he worked for some four years. At the age of 15 he was sent to Lexington, Missouri to sell a stock of goods, and soon afterwards he moved to Michigan with his father and four brothers but at some point returned to New York.

On either February 1 or March 17, 1847, Daniel enlisted for 3 years at New York City in Company I, Captain W. W. Tompkins, Tenth United States infantry Regiment, and was promoted to Second Sergeant while in New York. He was detailed by Captain Tompkins on recruiting service at Patterson, New Jersey, and was sent by transport to Matamoros, Mexico where he was on garrison duty for some eight months. He eventually returned to the United States, and was discharged as a First Sergeant at Fort Hamilton, Long Island, New York, either in July or on August 24 of 1848.

Following his discharge from the army Daniel returned to western Michigan and settled in Grand Rapids where he “engaged in the dry goods business on Monroe Street in the old Abel Block, a structure which stood about where Platte’s umbrella store is now located.” He worked for some years as a merchant and in 1850 he married New Jersey native Elizabeth Mundy (1829-1887). They had at least two children: Sarah (b. 1852) and Edward (b. 1858-1917).

In the early 1850s Daniel went out to California, probably to try his luck in the goldfields, but soon returned to Grand Rapids where he resumed his business interests and continued to work as a local merchant until the outbreak of the war.

Because of his background of service in the Mexican War, Daniel quickly became involved with one of the two local militia companies in Grand Rapids, the Valley City Light Guards, soon shortened to simply the Valley City Guard, which was organized in 1855. In fact, in June of 1856, McConnell replaced Wright L. Coffinberry as the Captain of the VCG, and by February of 1858 was quickly elected to overall command of the several companies which comprised the “Grand River” Battalion of the Thirty-fourth (later renumbered as the Second and then the Fifty-first) Regiment of Michigan Volunteer State Militia, in Grand Rapids, which he superintended from about through the fall of 1860.

This unit was at one point styled the Fifty-first Regiment, Michigan Volunteer Infantry, and included the three Grand Rapids companies (the Valley City Guard, the Grand Rapids Artillery and the Grand Rapids or “German” Rifles) as well as the “Boston Light guard” from western Ionia County (under the command of Captain Ambrose A. Stevens, who would become McConnell’s Lieutenant Colonel). These four companies of the Fifty-first Regiment would form the nuclei for companies A, B, C and D, respectively, of the Third Michigan Infantry which would be organized in Grand Rapids in April of 1861.

In the period 1859-60 Daniel was still working as a merchant and living on the east side of Lafayette between Fulton and Fountain Streets in Grand Rapids, and in 1860 he was a clerk living with his wife and children in Grand Rapids’ Third Ward; Daniel was worth $10,000 in real estate and $4,000 in personal property.

Notwithstanding the prestige of his rank and position in the militia and in the community as a whole, Colonel McConnell was court-martialed in Grand Rapids on August 20, 1860.

The proceedings of the Court Martial for the trial of Colonel D. McConnell, published by State Authority, in pamphlet form, have been laid upon our table, from which we extract the charges, the order appointing the Court, and the finding of the Court. The specifications under each charge being quite lengthy, is omitted. CHARGE 1st That the said Colonel McConnell has been guilty of disrespect toward his commanding officer. CHARGE 2d The said Colonel Daniel McConnell has been guilty of ungentlemanly, uncourteous, and unofficerlike conduct toward his brother officers, and particularly toward his commanding officer, the said Brigadier General William A. Richmond, and toward the said Major Christopher W. Leffingwell, Brigade Inspector and Brigadier Major aforesaid. CHARGE 3d The said Colonel Daniel McConnell has been guilty of disobedience to the orders of his superior officer, and contempt of his authority.

The above Charges and Specifications having been preferred against Colonel Daniel McConnell, by Major C. W. Leffingwell, an order was at once issued appointing a Court Martial, and notifying said Colonel McConnell thereof: Colonel - The above Charges and Specifications having been duly preferred against you, a Board of Officers, consisting of the following persons, to wit: Major General A. S. Williams, Colonel H. M. Whittlesey, Colonel A. W. Williams, Colonel H. Chipman, Major A. P. Bidwell and Captain John Dudgeon, have been appointed to constitute a Court Martial to investigate said Charges and Specifications, who will assemble at the City of Grand Rapids, on the 20th day of August next, and continue their session from day to day until the same shall have been fully decided. Major William K. Gibson, of the 2d Division, has been specially detailed as Judge Advocate.

The Court convened at Grand Rapids, on the 20th of August, in obedience to order constituting it, Colonel Chipman and Captain John Dudgeon having been excused from serving on the Board, Lieutenant Colonel Stevens was appointed, which, with the others present, constituted a quorum.

The President of the Board, General A. S. Williams, appointed Major A. Wilson, Marshal, to attend upon said Court. The following is the finding of the Court:

The Board of Court Martials Convened at the City of Grand Rapids, on the 20th day of August, A.D. 1860, to hear and determine certain Charges and specifications preferred against Colonel Daniel McConnell, commanding the 2d Regiment in the Sixth Brigade and 2d Division of the Militia of the State of Michigan, by Major Christopher W. Leffingwell, Brigade Major of said Brigade, having heard the proofs and allegations of the Judge Advocate for the prosecution, and Major S. G. Champlain [sic], counsel for the accused, and after due deliberation, and consideration of the same, do find that the said Daniel McConnell is guilty of the first Specification, and the first Charge thereon founded, and that he is so guilty of the third Specification, and the third Charge thereon founded, and that he is not guilty of the second Specification and the second Charge.

And it appearing to the Court from the facts and evidence in the case that Colonel McConnell was laboring under a misapprehension of the law, in regard to the organization of the Volunteer Militia of this State, and that the disrespect to his superior officer, and the disobedience of orders of which he has been found guilty, was the result of such misapprehension, rather than willfulness on his part; and it also appearing that he misunderstood an intimation of the Adjutant General, that it would be proper for him to report to the Adjutant General and receive his orders direct from him, therefore this Court do hereby order and adjudge, by virtue of the authority vested in it, by the Military Law of the State, that the said Colonel McConnell be suspended from his command as Colonel of said 2d Regiment, for and during the period of three months from and including this date.” Adjutant General Francis Curtenius approved the findings on September 8, 1860, and on September 19 issued General Order No. 7: “The sentence of the Court in the [McConnell] case having been approved by the Commander-in-Chief, and Colonel Daniel McConnell suspended from the command of the 2d Regiment of Volunteer Militia, Lieutenant Colonel Ambrose A. Stevens, the next in command, will assume the command thereof until the expiration of the sentence, to wit: the 28th day of November, 1860.”

After the fall of Fort Sumter in mid-April of 1861, and following President Lincoln’s first call for volunteers, the local militia companies in Michigan began organizing themselves as the focal points for the regiments which each state would supply to the federal service. As Colonel of the Fifty-first Regiment of Michigan Volunteer Militia, Daniel, who was 35 years old, was appointed Colonel of the newly organized Second (soon changed to Third) Michigan Regiment of Volunteer Infantry.

Aside from real or imagined political differences with his peers or personal conflicts with his superiors, Colonel McConnell seemed to inspire controversy. On May 22, 1861, while the Third Regiment was forming in Grand Rapids, the Grand Rapids Enquirer wrote that there was some confusion over where exactly the new company from Muskegon, the “Muskegon Rangers,” was supposed to go -- was it to join the previous Regiments in Detroit or the Third infantry? This confusion caused substantial undercurrent of resentment among the “Rangers” and many of them returned to Muskegon rather than be assimilated into the Third infantry.

“A few days after the fall of Fort Sumter,” wrote the Enquirer, “a successful effort was made at Muskegon in the matter of organizing a military company and raising funds for its support for a finite period. It was at that time supposed, that but a short time would elapse before the Company would be incorporated in some Regiment, and leave for the Regimental headquarters. But time sped on, and little adequate headway was made toward securing this desideratum. Meanwhile, some correspondence occurred between the company and the command of the Third Regiment, stationed in this city. Dissatisfaction was expressed at the nature of this correspondence, on the part of some of the ‘Rangers’.”

Apparently, Daniel “required two things, 1st, that the Company, after inspection by the Regimental surgeon, should consist of only the number of men prescribed by the U.S. call; and 2nd, that there must be at least one person fully capable of instructing the Company in the prescribed drill. The colonel reserving a right, in case there should be no such person in the Company, to select one non-commissioned officer for the ‘Rangers’. These were the primary causes of dissatisfaction. And from these have arisen a hundred rumors of a distorted and audacious character.” But while some in Muskegon (and Grand Rapids) were displeased with McConnell’s handling of the affair, his sense of the importance of discipline could not be underemphasized in other quarters. The Enquirer wrote that

The superior officers to the colonel would have had just cause to censure him, had he disobeyed their orders; and he did only that which it was absolutely necessary he should do under the circumstances. So uncertain were the ultimate intentions of the Muskegon Company, that the Military Board did not assign them to our Regiment; but placed the Georgetown company in the position which the “Muskegon rangers” were to have had. At length . . . the Muskegon Company appeared in our city; and the next day, ascertained that they really did not belong to the 3rd Regiment, at all, in addition to the other real or fancied grievances of which they complained. But Col. McConnell immediately opened a correspondence by telegraph, with the military board at Detroit, and eventually obtained permission for the “Rangers” to be placed in the 3rd Regiment, in case they complied with the conditions which had been accepted by the remaining companies. Further objections were then interposed, and the Rangers were allowed until 8 o'clock Thursday evening to decide upon their action. No answer being given, the Colonel received the Georgetown company, and ordered them to appear at Cantonment Anderson [where the Regiment was forming] at as early a a date as possible. I understand that they will arrive in our city tomorrow evening.

However, the dissatisfaction was soon appeased and according to the Enquirer “all difficulties which may have existed in regard to the Muskegon Company have been satisfactorily arranged, and the ‘Rangers’ have been regularly received as a component part of the ‘Third Regiment’. This will be gratifying news not only to our own citizens, but to the people of the County from which the ‘Rangers’ hailed.”

Daniel stood 5’11” with blue eyes, brown hair and a light complexion and was 34 years old when he became the Colonel of the newly formed Third Michigan Infantry. A correspondent for the Detroit Daily Advertiser described Colonel Daniel McConnell as “well known to the military gentlemen of the State.”

The Third Michigan left Grand Rapids on Thursday morning, June 13, 1861, and passed through Detroit, Cleveland, Ohio, Pittsburgh and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and arrived in Baltimore on Sunday June 16. According to a letter written from Hospital Steward Walter Morrison to his family in Grand Rapids, “Col. McConnell gave orders the night before that if while passing through Baltimore, a stone should be thrown upon the Regiment, to stop and fire upon the crowd, and if a shot was fired from a window, to tear the house down.” Dan Crotty of Company F wrote after the war that when the Regiment reached Baltimore “Our noble Colonel, Dan McConnell, gave the order to prime our pieces, which gave the roughs who gathered around to understand that we were not to be trifled with. The order is given to get into platoons, for we have a march of about 3 miles to the Washington depot. Our Colonel says: ‘If a man from my Regiment is hurt, the streets of Baltimore will run with blood’.”

The Regiment passed quietly through Baltimore, and upon arrival in Washington, McConnell was ordered to take the Regiment up the Potomac to Chain bridge, above Georgetown. By July 1 the Regiment was encamped on the bluffs overlooking the chain bridge and river.

Colonel McConnell quickly won a reputation for being a “strict disciplinarian.” A correspondent for one Detroit newspaper reported that while in camp near Washington, that “The boys of the Third have already won an enviable reputation in the neighborhood, for quiet and orderly deportment. Some of the farmers in this vicinity have complained of nocturnal descents upon their hen-roosts, milk cellars, and gardens; but they declare that in no instance have the ‘boys in the gray uniform’ been the offenders. Colonel McConnell has declared that if he finds any of his men guilty of these lawless depredations, they shall receive prompt and condign punishment. The Colonel is a strict disciplinarian, which occasionally [brings] a murmur of complaint from those who are impatient of restraint; yet his uniform kindness and courtesy have won for him the esteem of the whole Regiment.”

A correspondent for the Detroit Daily Tribune described Colonel McConnell as “a rigid and strict disciplinarian, and whatever fault may have been found with by either his officers or men, has been from this cause, rather than from any other. All strict disciplinarians are at first unpopular with volunteers, but a period of camp life and service always results in a change of favor of such officers, and this change is now rapidly taking place in favor of Colonel McConnell.”

These reports were confirmed by several members of the Regiment. George Miller of Company A who wrote his parents that the “The Colonel is very strict about giving passes now, some of the soldiers would go out and trespass on the people’s property who would come and make complaints to the Colonel, [and] ever since he has been very particular about giving passes.” On August 8, 1861, Charles Church of Company G described McConnell as “a tyrannical old devil. The boys are all down on him.” And George Lemon of Company H wrote from Arlington Heights that “Our Colonel is not liked very well by any of us. For he has kept closer us closer than there was any need of. We have been confined more than any other Regiment around here.”

An officer serving with Company I observed McConnell’s strict adherence to the rules from a bit different angle, one also touching on the Colonel’s clash with the Captain of Company I, George Weatherwax. A private in Company I, Francis barlow was recommended for discharge due to a chronic disability. Apparently there was some problem at first with his discharge. According to Brennan, he remembered Barlow well “because Col. McConnell [commanding the Third Michigan] & Cap Weatherwax [commanding Company I] had quite a row about having him mustered out of service. It was claimed by the Col. That because of some informality about his muster in, he was not entitled to a discharge certificate.”

Aside from being widely disliked by the rank and file, it soon became apparent the Colonel McConnell was not particularly respected either. On September 11, the Republican credited McConnell for getting some eleven additional Minie rifles for Company G. According to Frank Siverd, orderly Sergeant of Company G and a frequent contributor to the Republican of well-balanced observations on developments in the Regiment, this attribution was wrong. He quickly replied to the paper that “In a recent number of the State Republican we notice an article giving Colonel McConnell credit for presenting the Lansing boys with a number of rifles. All the rifles we have, were got by the boys themselves, without the assistance of any person. The Colonel did, I believe, give permission to a few of the boys to keep the rifles which they picked up in the field or roads where they would otherwise have been left for the enemy. We attribute the error to a mistake in understanding your informant, and not to any desire to give credit where it does not belong.”

Daniel resigned on account of chronic diarrhea on October 22, 1861. On October 17, 1861, McConnell submitted his resignation to General George B. McClellan, then commanding the Army of the Potomac. “I have the honor,” he wrote, “to tender to you the resignation of my commission as Colonel of the third Regiment Michigan Volunteers, and ask that said resignation be accepted. The reasons for urging the acceptance of my resignation is owing to the state of my health. Annexed will be found certificates of Brigade Surgeon D. Willard Bliss and of Surgeon Z. E. Bliss, which will, I trust, give you the required assurance that my resignation at this time is from laudable and proper motives.”

On October 19, Brigadier General Israel Richardson wrote McConnell acknowledging receipt of his resignation, accompanied by the surgeon’s certificate of disability.

You therefore being about to retire to private life, it is entirely proper for me to bear that testimony of your good conduct while under my command which my knowledge of facts justify me in doing, and which should I let this occasion pass away without doing so in all probability in the pressure of coming events would be forgotten

Your Regiment was included in my brigade just before the march upon Manassas, the Regiment as well as yourself was therefore under my command on that occasion.

Notwithstanding the state of your health you remained in command of your regiment from the time of your departure from the Chain Bridge until your return to Arlington Heights. On the march out, and during the battle of the 18th of July [Blackburn’s Ford], as well as on the retreat from Centreville, you discharged your whole duty to my entire satisfaction, and I can bear testimony that both yourself and regiment under your command performed well.

In making my report of the doings of my command, on Sunday and Sunday night of July 21st, by misapprehension of facts, I made a mistake in stating that Lieut Col Stevens was in command of the Regiment. I was led into this error from the fact that Lieut Col Stevens, at Centreville, came to me for orders in relation to placing your regiment in line of battle.

I have since learned that you sent that officer to me for directions, and that you had not relinquished the command.

I was highly pleased with the manner in which your discharged your duty there, and in covering the retreat from Centreville.

Allow me to say I have ever been satisfied, and highly pleased with the courage, as well as ability as an officer, ever manifested by you from the time you entered my command down to our last military operations on the occasion of an [sic] reconnaissance to Pohick Church undertaken on the 18th of the present month.

Believe me you will carry with you in your retirement, my heartfelt wishes for your future prosperity and happiness.

While there were rumors that he was not mentally fit to command, he was reported to be quite ill. Regimental Surgeon Dr. D. W. Bliss included the following letter as an annex to McConnell’s letter of resignation. “Having been your medical advisor for the past four months, and watched with painful anxiety, the steady progress of the disease with which you are afflicted (chronic diarrhea) and bringing to your aid my best professional skill and ability, to no purpose in relieving you, I am reluctantly constrained to earnestly advise you to resign your commission as commanding officer of your regt., and return at once to private life, as the only means of affording any chance of regaining your health. The inclement weather of the approaching season, together with the exposures incident to the tented field, in my opinion, forecludes the possibility of your regaining your health, or being able to perform the arduous duties, which your present position demands of you.” He closed by saying that “The uniform kindness and courtesy you have ever extended to the officers and men under your command, and the care and anxiety you have always manifested for their health comfort, and proficiency.”

Interestingly, in his history of Company K of the Third Michigan infantry David Robinson claimed that there is a letter in McConnell's pension file, dated December 5, presumably 1861, that said “We the undersigned officers of the 3d Regiment Michigan Infantry of Volunteers do hereby certify that we have been in the 3d Regiment Mich. Vols. from its organization up to the present time, and that Colonel Daniel McConnell (lately resigned) did not send in his resignation until charges were preferred against him for Incompetency, Drunkenness, and conduct unbecoming and Officer and a gentleman. He never excused himself from duty, on account of sickness but once or twice of 3 or 4 days; And we as Tax-payers protest against his application for a Pension, knowing that he is not justly entitled to a Pension.”

A second letter in the file claimed that “The charges preferred, would have cashiered him if he had not resigned, of which he was well aware or he would not have sent in his resignation at that time. He was drunk on the 4th day of July 1861, the 6th & 8th of the same month, the 18th of September, 12th of October, and in fact he was under the influence of liquor more or less all the time he was in command of the Regiment, and for this reason we are confident he is not legally entitled to a Pension. If further proof is necessary, you can readily find it by an investigation of this matter.”

In any case, Colonel McConnell would be little missed.

George Miller of Company A wrote that Colonel McConnell “resigned a few days ago and Major [Stephen] Champlin has been promoted to Colonel in his stead. We have a colonel now that we can depend on and we are all proud of him, [as] he looks to the comforts of his men as well as his own, he goes through the camp every little while to see the men in there [sic] tents and see if they want anything, a thing Colonel McConnell never done [sic].”

Frank Siverd’s usual objective tone gave way this one time to a scathing indictment impugning McConnell’s character. “Colonel McConnell,” he wrote on November 7, “has resigned, a procedure necessitated from the precarious condition of his health. So say the papers. We learn he is about to receive a pension from Uncle Sam, on account of the permanent injury to his health brought about by severe exposure on the field, incident to his arduous duties as an officer. We opine, that liberal as our uncle is, he would not grant ninety dollars a month pension to a man who is notorious for never having done the government any service, especially if he could have observed the great accumulation of empty bottles in and around the Colonel's quarters. Major Champlin takes his place and will make an efficient officer. . . .”

Perhaps Lieutenant Stephen Lowing of Company I found the right chord to describe McConnell when he wrote that the Colonel was brave to a fault but he couldn’t learn tactics. “It is not every good fellow that can make a military man, and yet no fault of his, and that was the difficulty with Captain Weatherwax [commanding Company I]. As good a fellow as I ever wish to mess with, and as poor a Captain. He was as good a Captain as McConnell was Colonel. They fought each other, and killed each other's chances; and both left the Regiment together and for the same reason, leaving many friends behind them. Both are brave, to a fault, but neither could learn the tactics.”

Apparently Colonel McConnell continued to feel the sting of controversey surrounding his resignation and in 1885, at the annual reunion of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, he asked that the October 19, 1861, letter from Brig. Gen. Israel Richardson, acknowledging his resignation, be entered into the association records.

Still, some wounds never seemed to heal, though,. In fact, it is likely that McConnell continued to smart from rumor and innuendo over the years following the war. On June 10, 1891, the Democrat published a speech given by Colonel Edwin Pierce, formerly Captain of Company E, on June 9, the thirtieth anniversary of the Old Third being mustered into United States service. “It is just thirty years tomorrow,” said Colonel E. S. Pierce in the Morton house,

that the old Third Michigan Infantry was mustered into service. Remember all about it, don't you? Of course you don't! Not old enough, eh? well, I have good reason to remember it. It's quite a romance; might be the foundation of a good novel. You see, I was mustered into service June 10, 1861, married June 11, and started for the front June 13. Lord, it was tough! Now wasn't it? On that day we started for the Potomac with 1,040 men and officers on the rolls. Colonel Dan McConnell was in command; . . . I tell you that old Regiment was composed of the very flower of the youth of Grand Rapids. We were attached to Richardson's Brigade and our first experience under fire was in the action at Blackburn's ford, June 18. Hot work that! Sunday, June 21, we had a warm fight at Bull Run; McConnell was ill and Lieutenant Colonel Stevens was in command. We covered the retreat to Washington and were mentioned in dispatches.

On June 21, a response to Pierce’s remarks was printed in the Democrat.

Under the headline of “’History Corrected’,” the writer took issue with Pierce’s statement that “‘McConnell was ill and Lieutenant Colonel Stevens was in command.’” The writer pointed out that during the confusion and retreat of so many Union Regiments toward Washington, two Regiments in the same Brigade with the Old Third fled toward the rear, leaving the Michigan Second and Third Regiments “as the only effective force of the Brigade to cover the retreat. Lieutenant-Colonel Stevens had been dispatched by Colonel McConnell to General Richardson for orders. McConnell was in command. Among soldiers of the regular army it is considered disgraceful for an officer to leave his command during action, even for illness, unless totally disabled. How well Colonel McConnell performed his duty at that time is set forth in the following letter from General Richardson, which is on file in the government archives, and the statement is corroborated in General McDowell's corrected reports.”

In addition to confirming receipt of McConnell’s letter of resignation as well as a summary of the recent events at Bull Run, Richardson closed by saying that he had been mistaken in saying earlier that Stevens had been in command of the Regiment. “’I have,’” wrote Richardson, “’since learned that you sent that officer to me for directions, and that you had not relinquished the command. I was highly pleased with the manner in which you discharged your duty there, and in covering the retreat from Centreville. Allow me to say, I have ever been satisfied and highly pleased with the courage as well as ability as an officer ever manifested by you, from the time you entered my command down to our last military operations on the occasion of our reconnaissance to Pohick church, undertaken by you on the 18th of the present month.’” The article was signed “One of the Old Third,” but it was clearly the hand of Dan McConnell.

After he resigned from command of the Third Michigan infantry in October of 1861 Daniel returned to Grand Rapids where he resumed his work as a merchant, and in 1865-66 he was living at 65 Lafayette Street. Sometime in the late 1860s he entered into the dry goods business with W. D. Meeker (his brother-in-law) and continued in that relationship until about 1875.

In the 1870s Daniel was operating an amusement theater called the Arcade, where various popular plays were staged. In October of 1874 he put on Joe Jefferson’s exhibition of Rip Van Winkle, and on October 20, 1877 the Democrat reported that “Col. McConnell in the “Arcade” will begin the sale of seats for the Ah Sin entertainment, at 9 o’clock Monday morning. There will be a rush to see the play, as it is the combined efforts of Mark Twain and Bret Harte.” He owned and operated the amusement arcade as well as a theater operation in the city for many years.

Daniel lived in Grand Rapids nearly all of his postwar life. In 1880 he was working as a broker and living with his wife on Division Street in Grand Rapids’ Second Ward; Elizabeth’s mother Sarah Mundy was also living with them. He was residing in the Third Ward in 1884 and in 1890. He was living in Sparta in 1894, but by 1902 was back in Grand Rapids and in 1904 he gave his post office address as 20 Powers Opera House Block in Grand Rapids. He was residing in Grand Rapids in 1907 when the second session of United States Senate of the Fifty-ninth Congress voted a bill to provide McConnell with a pension rate increase to $30.00 per month (he received Mexican War service pension no. 14,068; Civil War pension no. 11,262).

Daniel was an uncle (by marriage) to Israel C. Smith of Company E, he was a member of the Mexican War Veterans’ association of the State of Michigan, a staunch Democrat, a member of St. Mark’s church as well as of the Old Third Michigan Infantry Association, the Loyal Legion and Grand Army of the Republic Custer Post No. 5 in Grand Rapids, from which he was “honorably discharged” on February 25, 1887.

Daniel died of acute nephritis at the Union Benevolent Association hospital (present-day Blodgett hospital) in Grand Rapids on Friday afternoon, January 3, 1908, and was buried in Fulton cemetery: section 6 lot 21.