Just who was Sam Davis?

The Sam Davis Home in Smyrna, TN, is one of Middle Tennessee's best Civil War sites.





Just who was Sam Davis?

The short answer is that he was “the boy hero of the Confederacy.” Today his short life stands as one of the most interesting stories to survive the “Lost Cause” era of Southern history.

Davis, the son of Charles Lewis and Jane Simmons Davis, was raised in an upper middle class home on Stewarts Creek in Smyrna.

He was well educated for the time, attending Smyrna area schools before enrolling in the Western Military Academy in Nashville. The headmaster was Bushrod R. Johnson who would soon become a general in the Confederate Army. Another teacher to play an important role in Davis’ life was Henry B. Shaw.

As war fever grew, the 19-year-old Davis joined a militia company called “The Rutherford Rifles,” which was soon mustered in as Company I, First Tennessee Infantry.

When the war began, his company joined Gen. Robert E. Lee for his first offensive actions in what is now West Virginia, where they fought at the Battle of Cheat Mountain, Sept. 12-15, 1861.

Davis returned to Smyrna in 1862 when his initial one-year enlistment ended.

There he was recruited, probably by his older half-brother John Davis, for an elite group of Confederate couriers and spies called “Coleman’s Scouts.” The unit was in command of the illusive E. Coleman, who was actually Davis’ former teacher, Henry Shaw. The scouts often reported directly to Gen. Braxton Bragg who was in command of the Army of Tennessee, but Gen. Benjamin Cheatham was in charge of the spy/scout ring and was the one who contacted Shaw about organizing the group of some 40 to 45 volunteers.

In the autumn of 1863, Davis and five other scouts were dispatched to gather information about Federal troop movements in Middle Tennessee. Bragg, still in the afterglow of his victory at Chickamauga, knew Gen. U.S. Grant was bound to move in troops to relieve the Union garrison at Chattanooga.

Of particular interest to Bragg and his command was Union Gen. Granville M. Dodge’s Division, which had been in the Corinth, Miss. area. Dodge hailed from a distinguished American family. His ancestor, Richard Dodge, came to North America in 1629 as a member of the Plymouth Colony.

Before the Civil War, Dodge was a railroad man who helped survey and build the famous Rock Island Line. By 1854, he had relocated to Council Bluff, Iowa, where he was involved in real estate development, shipping and banking. After the Civil War, he earned the unofficial title of “the greatest railroad builder of all time” for serving as chief engineer of the Union Pacific railroad.

A powerful businessman, Dodge proved to be an effective commander earning the trust of Abraham Lincoln, U.S. Grant and William T. Sherman.

When his life impacted that of Sam Davis, Dodge was in command of the second division of the 16th Corps of the Union Army of the Tennessee, where Grant put Dodge’s expertise as a railroad engineer to work repairing destroyed lines.

But Dodge’s chief role in Tennessee was serving as the chief of the Bureau of Military Intelligence for Grant.

Dodge was Grant’s spymaster with more than 100 operatives in the trans-Mississippi area. His agents had contributed to Federal victories at Vickburg and at Island No. 10.

Dodge's division did no fighting at Vicksburg, but remained at Corinth until November 1863, when it moved out with Sherman, marching from Corinth to Pulaski, Tenn.

Sherman moved on, leaving Dodge at Pulaski to guard the Nashville and Decatur Railroad, while Sherman moved to relieve Chattanooga. There was also another matter that Grant ordered Dodge to attend to: Coleman’s Scouts.

Dodge had some distinguished units in his command including Birge’s Western Sharpshooters, who had equipped themselves with Henry Repeating Rifles. Also at his disposal was the 7th Kansas Cavalry, nicknamed “The Jayhawkers,” which included former guerillas from the Kansas-Missouri border wars. Charles R. “Doc” Jennison was one of the most infamous of the Jayhawkers and first earned his fame by stealing horses from Missouri.

But one member of the 7th Kansas Cavalry exceeded Doc Jennison and even General Dodge in fame. He was young William F. Cody, later known by the world as Buffalo Bill.

Dodge’s men did their job well. Many of Coleman’s Scouts were captured, wounded or died on their missions in Middle Tennessee.

A list of the scouts was compiled by surviving members of the unit in 1898. Most, if not all of them, had been captured, some repeatedly like Billy Moore. He was captured twice but managed to escape from his court martial in Pulaski. Tom Joplin, who was on the same mission with Sam Davis, was wounded twice and captured and helped to escape from Nashville.

At least three of the scouts died because they refused to divulge their secrets. Two of them, Dee Jobe and Dick Dillard died more horrific deaths, but it was Sam Davis who won acclaim through a set of unique circumstances.

Retelling Davis’ death became one of the most popular “Lost Cause” stories thanks chiefly to an editor named Sumner A. Cunningham.

A Shelbyville native, Cunningham founded the Chattanooga Times only to sell it for $450 to Adolph Ochs, who later established the New York Times newspaper dynasty.

Cunningham achieved national prominence with a publication he established in 1893 called “The Confederate Veteran.”

Based in Nashville, Cunningham’s monthly magazine began as a newsletter reporting on a drive to build a monument honoring CSA President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, Va.

Cunningham was a member of the Southern Press Association, which was originally called the Southern Press Davis Memorial Monument Association. This group united with the United Confederate Veterans, headed by former CSA Gen. John Bell Gordon. The Nashville American newspaper, edited by Edward Ward Carmack, had issued the first call for the Davis Memorial.

With the success of the Jefferson Davis Memorial, Cunningham would soon be beating the drum of support for another Davis.... Sam Davis, the boy hero of the Confederacy.