We attended this evening the funeral of Colonel Angus W.
McDonald, the relative of Mr. –––. His is a sad story. He was educated at West
Point, but in early life resigned his position in the regular army and joined a
company of fur traders, went with them to the Rocky Mountains, where he led an
adventurous life, well suited to his excitable temper. For years, his life was
full of adventure, with the broad heavens for his roof and the cold earth for
his couch. With a bold spirit and great muscular power, he soon acquired
extensive influence with the Indian tribes among which he moved, and was chosen
as the chief of one of them, where he was known as the “Big Warrior.” As such
he led his braves to many a hard-fought battle and taught surroundmg tribes to
fear him and them, by such courage and prowess as always so deeply impress the
savage mind. Many incidents of his life among the Indians are full of interest.
On one occasion, having received an injury from a neighbouring tribe, he sent
to them that he was coming to settle with them for it, and that they must meet
him for the purpose, at a certain time and place. Accordingly, all their warriors
were assembled and seated in due form, at the proper distance from and around a
central post, ready and waiting for the conference. At the appointed time, the “Big
Warrior,” in full dress, made his appearance, and striding through to the
centre of the dark, silent circle, he struck his tomahawk deep into the
"post," and looking quietly but sternly around from one gloomy
warrior to another, he in few words told them why he was there, and what he
required of them. “You have insulted me,” said he; you robbed some of my men,
and you killed two of them ; you must restore the goods and give up the
murderers, or you must fight it out, and I am here for that purpose.”
His imposing appearance, his boldness, the justice of his cause, and his steady
purpose of retaliating to the full, so awed them, that his terms were promptly
assented to, and he quickly returned to his people with the most ample
satisfaction for the injuries they had received. He grew weary of this life
after some years, and determined to return to his early home and associations.
Acting upon this impulse, we next find him in Romney, Hampshire County, among
his kindred, where he quietly resumed the duties of civilized life, was
married, and practised law for years. Still restless and different from other
men, he was constantly speculating in one thing and another — politics,
property, etc. At one time he was in the Virginia Legislature, and controlled
the vote of his county in a way new to our republican experience. For this
purpose he got possession of a large mountain region, filling it with a population
whom he ruled very much as a Scottish chief would have done in his ancestral
Highlands, and using their votes to decide any public controversy in which he
chose to engage. This, of course, did not last long; it was too much opposed to
the public views and feelings, and under the consequent changes around him, he
found it expedient to return to private life. From this retirement, however,
his native State soon recalled him, as one of the three commissioners to settle
the boundary line between Maryland and Virginia. In his capacity as such, the
Virginia Legislature sent him to England to examine the public records bearing
upon this subject. He discharged the duties of his mission with ability and
success, as his voluminous report will show. The present war found him residing
with his large family near Winchester, his native place. The Confederate
Government having given him the commission of a colonel, it was hoped that he
would be of great use in the bloody contest; but a discipline better suited in
its severity to Indian warriors than to our high-minded volunteers, together
with advanced years and declining health, disappointed the expectations of
himself and his friends. He found, indeed, that bodily infirmity alone rendered
him unfit for active service, and this, with other difficulties, made it proper
to break up his command. Thus it happened that when that brute, Hunter, marched
through Lexington, spreading desolation in his path. Colonel McDonald, then a
resident of the town, believing that the enemy, who had manifested great
harshness towards him, injuring his property near Winchester, etc., would
arrest him, determined to keep out of their way, and with others took refuge in
a neighbouring forest. Here, unfortunately, the enemy found him, with his son
Harry, a youth of some sixteen years, and took them prisoners. It is somewhat
singular that the presence of this devoted son caused the father's arrest. He
had always determined that he would never surrender, never be taken alive. But
when he looked at this boy, who had fought so nobly by his side, and who would
surely be sacrificed if he refused to surrender, he could fight no longer; it
seemed to him, as he afterwards said, as the voice from Heaven which stayed the
armed hand of Abraham, and he could not fire another shot. Father and son were
thus captured. Harry escaped in a day or two; but the father was tied and
dragged along at a rapid pace towards the Maryland line. When he could no
longer walk a step, they allowed him to get into a wagon with nothing to rest
upon but some old iron, rough tools, etc. Thus they hastened him to Cumberland,
Maryland, where they handcuffed him and put him into solitary confinement; thence
he was hurried to Wheeling, where he was again, with his manacles on, shut up
in a dungeon, seven feet by ten, with nothing to relieve the sufferings
incident to such a fate, nothing to expect or hope for, but the bitterest
cruelty. From this dreadful captivity he was released two or three weeks ago,
and reached the house of his daughter, in this city, with health, bad for
years, now worse than ever, and constitution entirely broken by hard and cruel
bondage. Cheered by freedom, and the society of his children who were here, he
flattered himself that he would be enabled to return to his home of refuge in
Lexington. This hope proved delusive. It soon appeared that his whole nervous
system was shattered, and his end rapidly approaching; his wife was sent for,
but did not arrive until the day after he died. Not dreaming of what awaited
her, she came full of hope and joy at the anticipated meeting. But who may
describe the grief which overwhelmed her on her arrival? His checkered life was
closed in his sixty-sixth year. The funeral took place this evening at St.
Paul's Church. He was buried with military honors, at Hollywood Cemetery. While
manacled in the horrid dungeon, his only petition was to be allowed to keep a
Bible, from which he professed to have derived great peace and comfort His
family think that he returned from prison a changed man. His spirit, which was
naturally stern, had become gentle and loving, and strangely grateful to every
being who showed him the least kindness. The Bible was still his daily
companion; from it he seemed to derive great comfort and an abiding faith in
Christ his Saviour.
SOURCE: Judith W. McGuire, Diary of a Southern
Refugee, During the War, p. 318-22
