Baldwin County GaArchives History .....History of Baldwin County - Campbell Biography 1925
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p. 290-294

PUBLIC LIFE OF DAVID CROWELL CAMPBELL

Taken from Different Articles Published after his Death.

    Colonel David Crowell Campbell was a native of New Jersey and a graduate of
Hamilton College, New York. Soon after completing his education, he moved to
South Carolina, and for several years practiced law in partnership with the Hon.
C. Y. Memminger, the distinguished Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate
States.

    About the year 1835 he changed his residence to Macon, Georgia, and soon
afterwards represented the county of Bibb in the Legislature. He moved to
Mil-ledgeville, and in 1845 he became proprietor and Editor of the "Federal
Union," in which character he was a firm and zealous supporter of the Southern
Rights Party in the contest of 1850-51. After the defeat of the Southern Rights
ticket, he sold the office and devoted his time mainly to his valuable planting
interests and to works of internal improvement connected with the seat of
government.

    He was an active and zealous member of the old Democratic Party of Georgia.
A forcible writer, he did valuable service to the cause and party to which he
was attached, and when the "day of secession" came, he was among the first of
those to advocate our separation from the North. The State Convention at
Milledgeville, which ordained our separation from the Union, nominated Col.
Campbell as the Commissioner from this State to Deleware, where, as the Journal
of that body shows, he ably presented to that State, Georgia's position and
secession, and ably and eloquently urged her to go and do likewise.

    At the time of his death, which occurred April 14, 1862, he was
corresponding Aide-de-Camp to Gov. Joseph Brown, a post of honor which he filled
with much ability.

    Col. Campbell was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church in Macon, and an Elder
of the Church at Milledgeville during the time of his residence in that city. In
that relation he was very useful. He was attentive to all the interests of the
church. The sick, the poor, the mourner, the erring, the Sabbath School, the
prayer meeting were all objects of his careful attention. His nature was very
sympathetic, and grace gave to his sympathies, warmth and vigor. He was indeed a
good and true man.

    "Peace be to his ashes."

Col. David C. Campbell

Macon, Georgia, April 14, 1862

    At the request of a friend of the deceased, and in accordance with the
promptings of my own heart, I record a brief memorial of Col. Campbell. While
the task is melancholy, it is yet pleasing. He was my friend, for many years my
neighbor, with whom I was accustomed to interchange the offices of personal
intimacy and take the counsel of Christian fellowship. It is melancholy because
a good and useful man is taken from this sphere and committed to the cold
embrace of the grave; and it is pleasing, because his life was eminently useful,
affording no painful retrospect, and his death triumphant, ushering him into the
glories of the upper sanctuary. His work was done and his Master called him. Why
should we mourn? He fulfilled the chief end of man, for he glorified God and
enjoyed Him. Who among his many admirers would withdraw him from the service and
peace of heaven, and restore him to the trials, and sufferings, and sins of
earth? Not one. What we have to do is to emulate his virtures, rejoice in his
.triumphs, and by faith and obedience secure an immortal reunion with his
ransomed spirit. Though dead, yet he speaketh. His grave is eloquent of death,
human obligation, eternity, and the triumphs of faith in the Son of God.

    Col. Campbell was born in New Jersey. After completing a liberal education,
he emigrated, being very young, to the State of South Carolina'. There he
studied the science of Law, and was admitted to the bar of that State. He was
for many years associated in the practice with the very eminent Secretary of the
Treasury of the Confederate States, Mr. Memminger. While a member of the
Carolina Bar, he maintained the character of an industrious, honest, honorable
and efficient practitioner. In the prime of his life he removed to Georgia, and
settled as a planter in the county of Houston. In a few years he became a
citizen of Macon.

    He did not resume his profession in Georgia, but was an active and ardent
politician in the ranks of the Democratic party. In that relation he soon became
eminent, and was nominated by a convention of the party on its congressional
ticket. Afterwards he assumed the official conduct of a political journal, "The
Federal Union," in the city of Milledgeville. In this service he continued for
several years. At his death he was one of the resident aides-de-camp of Governor
Brown, engaged in assisting the Executive in the arduous duties of the war. He
was called in the course of a long life to occupy various positions of
responsibility and trust, which in an article like this cannot be enumerated.

    Such is but a meager outline of a life which in its details is rich in
facts, incidents, and experiences. It may not be omitted that from the beginning
he gave himself with en-lightened zeal to the cause of Southern independence,
deriving, as he was known to do, strength to his political convictions from his
sense of religious obligation.

    All the relations which Col. Campbell bore to society were beautified by
Christianity, and it is his Christian character that I desire to hold up to the
affection and imitation of all who read this sketch. Religion was illustrated in
his public life as conspicously as in the bosom of his family, in the circles of
private friendship, or the walks of business. No one, it is confidently
believed, has been known to reproach him with having acted as public or
professional man otherwise than became a Christian gentleman. This is no small
encomium. Happy is the man who is enabled, through a long life, to carry into
the agitations of politics, and the perplexities of the profession, the graces
of Christianity, and to maintain, through the strifes of party unquestioned
loyalty to the principles of the Gospel. This beatitude his friends may
rightfully claim for our departed brother. The writer does not know certainly
when he united with the church, but thinks it was when he was still a young man,
and that he was converted under the preaching of Rev. Daniel Baker.

    He was an elder of the Presbyterian church in Macon for many years, and an
elder of the church at Milledgeville during the time of his residence in that
city. In that relation he was very useful. He was attentive to all the interests
of the Church. The sick, the poor, the mourner, the erring, the Sabbath School
and the prayer-meeting, were objects of his careful attention. His nature was
sympathetic, and gave to his sympathies warmth and vigor.

    Nor was he less attentive to the church at large. Frequently a member of her
judicatories, he sustained her boards and contributed counsel and means to her
enterprises. He understood her constitution and polity, he loved her doctrines
and venerated her usages. He was notwithstanding a Catholic Christian. While he
loved the very dust of the outer court of the temple at Jerusalem, he was
willing to worship upon any mountain of Samaria. He commanded his household, yet
he was kind, even tender, to all about him. One of the proofs of his thorough
Christian character is found in the profound reverence entertained for him by
his children. He was a Christian father, husband, master, and citizen. What more
need be said? Behold what religion wrought in the person of this man of God! Is
humanity depraved? Yes, but see how beautiful and pure it is when transformed by
grace. It is a ruin by the fall, but a glorious temple by the Gospel.

R. Memminger Campbell

    Among the noble dead in our country's cause it is our painful task to record
the name of Memminger Campbell, youngest son of the late Col. D. C. Campbell of
this city. He was one of the first volunteers who entered the service as a
member of the "Baldwin Blues," 4th Eegiment Georgia Volunteers. This he did
while a student in Oglethorpe College, though his age would have exempted him
from duty by some twelve months. Young, gifted, and greatly beloved, we mourn
his early death.

    Rumor for some weeks excited most painful fears that he had fallen a victim
of the battle of Sharpesburg; but hope triumphed over fears, till the return of
a paroled prisoner, a short time since, from Hagarstown, making certain the fact
that Memminger died at Hagerstown on the 25th of September, eleven days after
his battle wounds, "a prisoner in bonds."

    The record of martyred heroes who have fallen in the sacred cause of
Southern Independence embraces in its increasing magnitude endeared objects of
affection from every section of our wide-spread Confederacy. But who can portray
the anguish in bereaved homes, or depict the agony produced by voids that never
can be filled?

    It is ours to lament a youthful patriot; to record the death of one whose
love of country prompted to volunteer service in the ranks of her defenders; one
who left an endeared home to encounter the perils of the battle field, and
finally to offer his young life a sacrifice upon the alter of his country.

    Thus, died the youthful, the lamanted, R. Memminger Campbell, ere yet he had
attained the period of manhood. He fell mortally wounded on the sanguinary
battlefield of Sharpsburg, and died in the hands of the enemy after protracted
suffering for away from the home of his childhood, and the loved ones who,
during weeks of torturing suspense, vainly hoped he might survive the alas! too
fatal wound.

    Long will the subject of this tribute be remembered. But amid the anguish
that can be felt only by those who are called to pass through similar
bereavements, there is yet light that shines beyond the youthful soldier's
grave. "There is hope in death."

Though young, he had dedicated himself to the service of his Maker, and by a
consistent walk as well amid the temptations of the camp, as when engaged in
ordinary duties of life, he evinced to all around him that he was indeed a
Christian soldier, and though death came suddenly upon him, he was prepared to
enter upon a higher service, and is now beyond the reach of all earthly trials
and temptations.

From infancy to manhood, 
How lovely was thy walk; 
How gentle every action, 
How pure thine every thought, 
"None knew thee but to love thee," 
In friends how rich thy store, 
Fond friends who loved thee dearly, 
Thine early loss deplore.
Milledgeville, 1862.



Additional Comments:
From: 

Part V

HISTORY of BALDWIN COUNTY GEORGIA
BY MRS. ANNA MARIA GREEN COOK

ILLUSTRATED
ANDERSON. S. C.
Keys-Hearn Printing Co.
-1925—

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