A museum interprets Davis’s life and the war in Rutherford County. Self-guided tour of sites relating to the capture and hanging of the "Boy Hero of the Confederacy."
The Sam Davis Home in Smyrna is one of Tennessee’s most significant Confederate memorial properties. Samuel (“Sam”) Davis, born here in 1842, enlisted in the Rutherford Rifles (Co. I, 1st Tennessee Infantry) in 1861 and fought in western Virginia. After his enlistment, he returned home and joined Capt. Henry B. Shaw’s Coleman’s Scouts, Confederate cavalrymen who gathered information on Union troop movements. Federal authorities considered them spies.
In November 1863, as Davis carried documents and newspapers to Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, he was captured near Pulaski. Union Gen. Grenville M. Dodge, future chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad, interrogated Davis and offered him freedom if Davis would divulge the name of the person who had supplied him with confidential reports from the Union camp in Pulaski. Davis refused, and Dodge ordered a quick military trial, which sentenced Davis to death.
He was executed in Pulaski on November 27, 1863. Davis and his reported statement “If I had a thousand lives to live, I would give them all rather than betray a friend” quickly became legendary. In 1909, the State of Tennessee dedicated a monument to the “boy hero of the Confederacy” at the state capitol. In the 1920s, local residents acquired his family home and 168 acres of the farm as a memorial. Visitors may view the main house, Davis’s gravesite and several outbuildings, including slave quarters, kitchen, and smokehouse.
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Key Facts
- The Union considered Coleman's Scouts to be spies.
- David refused to buy his freedom with the name of his contact at the Union camp in Pulaski and was executed.
