Captain Donald MacDonald was the second son of the Captain (Chief) of Clanranald and a member of Prince Charlie's army, serving in the Royal Ecossois Regiment of the French army, sent by the King of France to assist Prince Charles. He was wounded at the seige of Stirling Castle and imprisoned after the surrender of the Jacobite forces. As a French officer he was released from imprisonment and returned to France. In 1757 he joined Simon Fraser's Highland regiment, the 78th as a captain. He sailed to Louisbourg in 1758 during the Seven Years War and was wounded in the seige. On the night of September 13, 1759 he was part of the forlorn hope, the twenty-four volunteers leading the British army as it set sail down the St. Lawrence attempt to bring Montcalm to battle. It was Simpn Fraser of Balnain who answered the challenge to the boats on the river, pretending to be a French supply convoy. At the top of the cliffs, as the volunteers reached the top, it was Donald MacDonald who fooled the French guards again, answering the challenge in Frech and buying time for enough to gather to rush the post and allow the rest of the army to reach the Plains of Abraham.Battle of the Plains of Abraham. During the subsequent winter, Donald MacDonald was given several independent commands, constantly harassing the French outposts. At the Battle of Ste. Foy, MacDonald commanded a company of volunteers on the left flank of the British army and was killed in the action.