His family can be traced in Scotland back to the 1600s, and to Archibald Moonlight and his wife Margaret Elspet Andersone.

Moonlight's birth date is frequently quoted as 10 November 1833 (including on his grave marker), but his baptism records exist for 30 September 1833.

By 1851, Moonlight no longer lived with his family, which supports evidence he left Scotland at an early age.

[1] When the American Civil War began in 1861, Moonlight raised a company of artillery for the 4th Kansas Infantry, but the regiment never completed organization.

The recruits to the company (and another regiment) were reassigned to the 1st Kansas Battery; Moonlight briefly served as its captain.

During Sterling Price's Missouri Raid in 1864, Colonel Moonlight commanded the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division in the Army of the Border and was conspicuous at the Battle of Westport.

[2] In April 1865, Moonlight became the commander of the north sub-district of the Great Plains headquartered at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.

A white woman, Lucinda Ewbanks, and her small child were discovered living in pitiful condition among the Oglala bands.

They had been kidnapped by Cheyenne almost a year earlier and sold to the Oglala band of Two Face and Black Foot.

Moonlight ordered the two Oglala hanged, apparently over the opposition of Mrs. Ewbanks and although warned by civilians at the fort of repercussions.

The army insisted and the Indians, with an escort of 138 cavalrymen under Captain William D. Fouts, departed Fort Laramie on June 11.

However, on June 13, near present-day Morrill, Nebraska, some of the Indians decided to flee northward across the North Platte River.

[7] In 1864 Moonlight was a presidential elector, casting a ballot for the re-election of the incumbent President Abraham Lincoln.