Confederate courier Sam Davis had reason to be wary as he rested in a thicket on the Rain’s farm outside of Nashville.
Union Brig. Gen. Grenville Dodge had the 7th Kansas cavalry looking for members of Coleman’s Scouts, a Confederate spy/courier unit of some 40 to 45 operatives.
Davis, along with his older half-brother John G. Davis, were active members of the unit, which was led by former teacher Henry Shaw, who disguised himself an unkempt, bearded herbal doctor who hobbled along with a limp.
Not all of Colemen’s operatives were men. Confederate sympathizer Mary Kate Patterson, who married John Davis in 1864, played an active role in the spy ring. Her brother, Everard Patterson, was a member of Coleman’s Scouts as well.
Mary Kate Patterson, who lived about nine miles from Nashville off Nolensville Pike, brought Davis his breakfast that Sunday morning in the thicket accompanied by her cousin Robbie Woodruff. He gave the two young women a list of items to purchase in Nashville. Most of the items were intended for Gen. Braxton Bragg, commander of the Confederate Army of Tennessee.
“We found him up, looking as bright as if he had slept all night, and, oh, he did enjoy his good warm breakfast, for we rode fast and had his coffee in a jug to keep it warm,” she wrote in the February 1896 edition of Confederate Veteran. “Two of my little brothers brought our dinner and we spent a nice, pleasant Sunday together – the last he spent on earth but one.”
The following day, a Monday, Davis’s younger brother, Oscar, kept him company while Patterson and Woodruff went to Nashville. After dark, he headed south toward Pulaski.
Davis next stayed at or near the home of Bob English near Lynnville in Giles County where he rendezvoused with Shaw and scouts W.J. Moore and Joshua Brown. Portions of Dodge’s troops were stationed nearby rebuilding the railroad line.
There, Davis on or about Nov. 18, was presented with the document that ultimately led to his death. It was apparently taken from Dodge’s desk by Houston English, who was a young slave of Bob English, while the general was at a meal. Davis hid that document in his boot, which was later cut apart by Union troops. That same boot is part of the collection at Tennessee State Museum in Nashville. A map showing the Union fortifications of Nashville was hidden in his saddle.
Shaw also gave him a letter for Col. A. McKinstry, provost marshal of the Army of Tennessee. A provost marshal was in command of the military police of a unit.
In his waterproof saddlebag were the personal items Mary Kate Patterson and Robbie Woodruff had collected for Gen. Bragg, including six or seven newspapers, toothbrushes, soap and blank writing journals.
It was hoped if Davis was stopped and searched only the items in the saddlebag would be discovered. He was dressed as a Confederate and wore a heavy Union overcoat that had been dyed butternut gray by his mother, Jane Simmons Davis. She had given him the coat when he surreptitiously visited the family home early in November. His father, Charles, cobbled his boots on the same visit.
With so many Union scouts and cavalry active in the area, Shaw instructed Davis to take a more circuitous route to Chattanooga by crossing the Tennessee River near Pulaski. Davis eluded capture once, but Brown and Moore were taken into custody.
Union scouts under the command of Capt. Levi H. Naron, nicknamed Chickasaw, were alert and devious.
Naron, who wrote a book about his own exploits in 1865, was an unlikely Union soldier.
“Chickasaw” was a Newton County, Ga., native who lived in Mississippi for 21 years and was a former slave owner. During the Mexican War, he was a member of the 1st Mississippi Rifles under the command of Col. Jefferson Davis, who later became president of the Confederacy.
Despite this background, Naron was a strong Unionist, who delivered stump speeches denouncing the Confederacy. Surrounded by bitter enemies, he relocated his wife and six children to Illinois and cast his lot with the Union army.
“Chickasaw,” under strict orders to apprehend members of Coleman’s Scouts, dressed his Union scouts as Confederate soldiers.
“While on their return to camp they met a young man dressed in rebel uniform, whom they conscripted for the rebel army. The young man was very indignant at first, and told them they were doing wrong, that he was on special business from General Bragg, all of which was of no avail, my scouts persisted in taking him before their Captain, who could act at his pleasure,” wrote Naron.
That young man was Sam Davis who was attempting to cross the Tennessee River near Minor Hill.
The ruse was over the minute they asked him for his weapons.
“He attempted to escape by putting spurs to his horse, but the scouts were on the watch, and the moment he made the effort one of the men caught his horse by the bridle rein,” Naron said.
Similarly, Shaw, Moore and Joshua Brown were captured and taken to Gen. Dodge for questioning.
“We did not know of the importance of the capture of Shaw, or that he was the Captain Coleman commanding Bragg’s secret service force. Nothing was found on any of the prisoners of importance, except upon Davis, who evidently had been selected to carry the information they had all obtained through to General Bragg,” Dodge said.
“Davis was brought immediately to me, as his captors knew his importance. They believed he was an officer and also knew he was a member of Coleman’s command.”
The general took the first crack at breaking Davis with the goal of locating Coleman and his command.
“Davis met me modestly. He was a fine, soldierly-looking young man, dressed in a faded Federal soldier’s coat, one of our army soft hats and top boots. He had a frank, open face, which was inclined to brightness,” Dodge said.
“I tried to impress upon him the danger he was in, and that I knew he was only a messenger, and held out to him the hope of lenient treatment if he would answer truthfully, as far as he could, my questions,” he said.
Davis, listening intently, gave Dodge no information. Capt. Armstrong, the 16th Division’s provost marshal, then placed Davis in the Pulaski jail with the other prisoners. An undercover Union informant was also added to the cell.
But the captured Confederates didn’t talk amongst themselves.
Dodge, in retrospect, said there were two reasons for the silence.
“They all knew Colonel Shaw was one of our captives, and that if his importance was made known to us he would certainly be hung, and they did not think that Davis would be executed,” he said.
The Confederates were wrong. The life of 21-year-old Sam Davis would soon be forfeit.
