He was a soldier in the American Revolutionary War, serving in the infantry from Virginia as a private then a sergeant in Nathan Reid's Company, 14th and 10th Virginia Regiments. He enlisted September 1 1777, and was last mentioned November 1779. He served under Gen. George Washington. Muster rolls for March, April, and May 1778 list David McGee at Valley Forge. After the War, he left Virginia, migrated to Tennessee and then in 1817 moved to Tuscaloosa County, Alabama where he lived until his death on August 7, 1857.