If I Had A Thousand Lives

Sam Davis known as the “Boy Hero of the Confederacy” was executed on November 27^th 1863.

Sam Davis was born October 6^th 1842 in Rutherford County, Tennessee, the son of Charles Lewis and Jane (Simmons) Davis.  He attended local schools, before going to the West Military Institute in Nashville, Tennessee in 1860-61, where his headmaster was the future Confederate General Bushrod Johnson.

At the beginning of the Civil War Davis enlisted as a private in the Confederate 1^st Tennessee Infantry.  He would see his first action at Cheat Mountain in the Shenandoah Valley.  Davis was wound at the Battle of Shiloh and again at the Battle of Perryville.  The Perryville wound was serious, and after recovering he became a courier for Coleman’s Scouts.

It was while doing service with Coleman’s Scouts that Davis was captured on November 20^th 1863 near Minor Hill, Tennessee.  He was wearing a partial Confederate uniform, had a pass from Confederate General Braxton Bragg and was in possession of Union papers detailing troop movements and private papers belong to Union General Grenville M Dodge.  Davis was arrested as a spy, and sentenced by a military court to be executed by hanging.  He was given an out, if he would name his Union contact, to which Davis was supposed to have said, "If I had a thousand lives to live, I would give them all rather than betray a friend or the confidence of my informer.”  Just before the execution Davis wrote a letter home to his family, "Dear mother. O how painful it is to write you! I have got to die to-morrow --- to be hanged by the Federals. Mother, do not grieve for me. I must bid you good-bye forevermore. Mother, I do not fear to die. Give my love to all.  Father, you can send after my remains if you want to do so. They will be at Pulaski, Tenn. I will leave some things with the hotel keeper for you."  He was hung November 27^th 1863 at Pulaski, Tennessee.

Lee's First Battle As A Confederate

The Battle of Cheat Mountain was fought September 12^th through 15^th 1861 in the Pocahontas and Randolph Counties area of Virginia, and was the first battle for Robert E Lee as a Confederate leader.

Union General William Starke Rosecrans had command of a force in Western Virginia, and he concentrated his men along the major transportation line in the area.  He left Union Brigadier General Joseph Jones Reynolds defending the Staunton and Parkersburg Turnpike in the Cheat Mountain area with about 1,800 men.  Confederate General Robert E Lee was sent into the western Virginia area to try to coordinate the Confederate forces in the area.  He first moved with the Army of the Northwest, which was under the command of Brigadier General William Wing Loring.  Lee developed a strategy to attack against Reynolds’ divided camps near the summit of Cheat Mountain and Tygart Valley.

The Confederates attacked in a heavy rain and fog.  Struggling with the visibility and mountain terrain the attack on Cheat Summit was uncoordinated.   The heavy fighting the Confederates faced from the 300 Union defenders, and misleading information given by captured Union soldiers caused Confederates Colonel Albert Rust and Brigadier Samuel Read Anderson to believe their 3,000 soldiers were outnumbered.  The Confederates who attacked Reynolds’ men at the Tygart Valley found the Union troops well entrenched and ready to hold.

Reynolds moved some troops up the road to Cheat Mountain to relieve the garrison there, but found it unnecessary.  Robert E Lee had the attack called off and moved his force to Valley Head.