The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-04-19

sI know that shall have to die, but I
will not tell where I got the information.
You are doing your duty as soldier and
l am doing mine"
Here is the action of the commission
which has been furnished by General
Proceedings of military commission
which convened at Pulaski, Tenn, by
virtue of the following general order:
= HEADQUARTERS left wing Sixteenth A. c.,
Pulaski, Tenn. November 20, 1863 Gen
eral Order No. PA military commission
is hereby appointed to meet at Pulaski,
Tenn, on the 23d instant, or as soon there
after as practicable, for the trial of Sam
Davis and such other persons as may he
brought before itz Detail of the commits
sion: Colonel Madison Miller Eighteenth
Missouri Infantry Volunteers: Lieuten-
ant Colonel Thomas w. Gaines, Fifteenth
Missouri Infantry Volunteers; Major La
throp, Thirty-ninth Iowa Infantry Volun-
teers, Judge Advocate. The committee
will sit without regard to hours. By order
of Brigadier General G. M. Dodge, ]. w.
Barnes, lieutenant and A. A. G.
The report of the commission reads: 1.-The
commission does, therefore, sentence him
the said Sam Davis. of Coleman's scouts,
in the service of the so-called Confederate
States to be hanged by the mack until he
is dead, at such time and place as the com
mandng officer shall direct two-thirds of
the commission coneurring."
Finding the sentence of the commission
approved it win be carried into effect on
Friday, November 81, 1868, between the
hours of 10 a. m. and p. m"
Sam Davis comrade, Joshua Brown, who
was captured and imprisoned with him,
tells:
1.-THE next morning, Friday, November
81, at 10 o'clock we heard the drums, and
a regiment of infantry marched down to
the Jail A wagon with coffin in 1t was
x7,.f., o,,1 4l,a net ho1
into the Jail and brought Davis out He
got into the wagon, stood up and looked
around, and seeing us at the court house
windows, gave us a farewell salute. Even
after he mounted the scaffold General
Dodge had hope that he would recant. One
of the noted Federal scouts, 'Chickasaw,
believing that he could prevail upon Da-
Wis to save his own life sprang from his
horse and followed him up the scaffold.
"'Tt is not too late yet, Davis, he said.
''Then in his last extremity Davis
turned upon him and said: If 1 had a
thousand lives I would lose them all here
before would betray the confidence of my
informer.'
HE died as heroes die, and there were
many such on both sides in that bloody
conflict of brother against brother. But
do you remember that the man whose name
Sam Davis would not reveal was his fellow
prisoner, H. B. Shaw, alias Coleman?
There has been no lack of honor to Sam
Davis memory. S. A. Cunningham has
passed the story down the ranks OF the
Confederate veterans. and the veterans or
the north have heard it's echoes and cheer
ed It, From both sides of the line have
come a word here a word there to piece
out its telling. When Mr.. Cunningham
started to raise subscription fund to
erect a monument to the lad who had died
a hero's death. General Dodge, who had
commanded the execution through lone OF
the fates of war whose cruelty there is no
refining" was one of the first to send
contribution, and many of the boys IN
blue'' have not been slow to follow.
Surely, everybody who visited the Ten
nessee Centennial last year will remember
the bust of Sam Davis, that sat near the
west entrance in the Parthenon. 1t was
the work of George Julian Zolnay, of New
York. who going to Nashville to effect
some Centennial commissions, was inspired
by the story of Sam Davis to produce an
imperishable tribute to his memory. Those
who remember Davis say the bust is mar
velous likeness; those who knew him not
eav IL Dortrays a here