A Collection of 14 letters written by David Close, Company D, to Rachel Close-Dunbar

Letters of David Close to Rachel Close-Dunbar

David Close was born on February 18, 1844, to James and Mary Catherine Close, in Jefferson County, Ohio. Mary Catherine died in childbirth when David was four years old. His father's two sisters Rachel and Mary took care of David and his two brothers, Jasper and William, until his father remarried three years later. In 1862 David, age 18, while working away from home, decided to enlist in the Union Army (Ohio Volunteers). He was gone before his parents knew it. His father followed him to Steubenville and tried to induce him to come home, but David was determined to go to war.