David H. Lee

David H. Lee

David H. Lee. Enrolled June 12, 1861. Transferred from Co. A June 10, 1864 ; detailed August 8, 1864, as Aid-de-camp on General Gill's staff ; killed Oct. 27, 1864, by guerrillas on the Coosa river.
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Ohio Thirty-Second Infantry, New Co. F., Regimental History.

On the 27th day of October, Lieut. D. H. Lee, of F. Company, then on staff duty, went in command of a detail, among which was two or more of our regiment. He had with him probably a dozen men. His duty was to find and bring into camp some citizens whose testimony was wanted by a Confederate who was being held as a spy.

When Lee, with his command, had gone some miles outside our lines, and while bearing a flag of truce, was surrounded by a band of guerillas, under command of one Jenkins, and although they displayed the white flag, they were denied its protection and a fight began, in which every man but Lee and one private, a Thirty-second Ohio man, was killed.

Lee was yet unhurt when the guerilla captain called to him to surrender and his life would be spared. On this Lee threw down his arms and the guerilla force gathered around him, and while the captain was talking with him, one of his men came up and shot Lee with a revolver through the back of the head. They took from his finger a diamond ring that had been given Lieut. Lee by his young wife, whom he had married when home on veteran furlough.

His body, with that of others, was thrown into a ravine and covered with brush, where it lay until the summer of 1865 after the surrender when the father of the young lieutenant went south, and with the aid of some of the citizens of a hamlet near by, recovered the remains of his son, which he was able to identify by the clothing. He was also fortunate enough to recover the diamond ring, which was in possession of an old citizen who claimed to have bought it from one of the guerillas.

Note His Burial is unknown.