Career
Born in 1839 in England, Donnelly immigrated to the United States and was living in New York when he joined the United States. Navy. He served during the Civil War as an ordinary seaman on the United States Ship Metacomet. At the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864, he was among the crew of a small boat sent from Metacomet to rescue survivors of the United States Ship Tecumseh, which had been sunk by a naval mine (then known as a "torpedo").
Despite intense fire, the boat crew was able to pull ten Tecumseh men from the water.
Donnelly died in 1895 at age 55 or 56.
