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.

A Long Running Raid

Col Abel D Streight

The first of a series of skirmishes known as Streight’s Raid, the Battle of Day’s Gap was fought on April 30th 1863 in Cullman County, Alabama.

The goal of Union Colonel Abel D Streight’s Raid was to cut off the Western & Atlantic Railroad, interrupting Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s supplies. Streight’s force made up of the 80th Illinois, 51st and 73rd Indiana, 3rd Ohio Infantry and 1st Middle Tennessee Cavalry, left Nashville, Tennessee and moved first to Eastport, Mississippi, then to Tuscumbia, Alabama. Leaving Tuscumbia on April 26th 1863 his march south was screened by Union Brigadier General Grenville M Dodge.

At Day’s Gap on the Sand Mountain, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest attacked Streight’s rearguard on April 30th 1863. The Union troops held off the attack and continued the march to avoid further envelopment. This battle set in motion a series of engagements including Crooked Creek and Hog Mountain the same day. Streight’s Raid came to end on May 3rd 1863 when Forrest surrounded the exhausted Union troops about three miles from Cedar Bluff, Alabama, where they surrendered. Streight was sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, which he escaped from on February 9th 1864.

The Phantom General

Thomas Edwin Greenfield Ransom a civil engineer and Union General in the Union army died October 29th 1864.


Thomas Edwin Greenfield Ransom was born November 29th 1831 in Norwich Vermont the son of Colonel Truman B Ransom. Ransom’s father was killed in action at the Battle of Chapultepec when he was fourteen. In 1848 Ransom entered Norwich University or Norwich Military Academy, following three years in school he moved to Illinois. He lived with an uncle in Peru Illinois and become known as the “Boy Surveyor” and he joined in business with fellow Norwich graduate Grenville M Dodge.

Ranson was working for the Illinois Central Railroad when the Civil War started. He raised troops for what would become Company “E” of the 11th Illinois. By November 9th 1862 Ransom was commissioned Brigadier General and was in command of a brigade in the Sixth Division of the XVII Corps. He was wounded four times in the fighting, at Fort Donelson, during a skirmish near Charleston Missouri, the Battle of Shiloh, and at the Battle of Sabine Cross Roads. This last time his wound were bad enough that he was sent to Chicago for treatment. He was assumed to have been killed so many time that he became known as the “Phantom General”. Returning the command in Georgia he was struck with typhoid, which weakened him and led to his death. Just before Ransom died he said, "I am not afraid to die, I have met death too often to be afraid of it now." He died near Rome Georgia October 29th 1864 and is buried in the Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago Illinois.