Isaac Williams Davis (1792 - abt. 1833)

Born 17 Oct 1792 in Augusta, Richmond County, Georgia

Ancestors

Husband of Susan (Gartley) Davis — married about 1815 in Wilkinson County, Mississippi

Descendants

Died about 26 Mar 1833 at about age 40 in Flora, Madison County, Mississippi

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Biography

Isaac Williams Davis, the fourth son, was also a planter and resided at Canton, Miss. He married Miss Susan Guertly, and left one son, Brigadier General Joseph R Davis, of the Confederate army; and two granddaughters.^[1]

Isaac was born in 1792 and passed away in 1833.^[2] Final resting place in Mount Bluff Cemetery, Flora, Mississippi.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Belles, Beaux and Brains of the 60's, Thomas Cooper De Leon, 1909.
2. ↑ Isaac Williams Davis, FamilySearch.org, accessed January 27, 2020.
3. ↑ Isaac Williams Davis, Find A Grave: Memorial #132602149, accessed January 27, 2020.

Name: Joseph Robert Davis State Served: Mississippi Highest Rank: Brigadier General Birth Date: 1825 Death Date: 1896 Birth Place: Woodville, Mississippi Army: Confederacy Promotions: Promoted to Full Captain Promoted to Full Lt Colonel (10th MS Inf) Promoted to Full Brig-Gen Biography: Brigadier-General Joseph R. Davis

Brigadier-General Joseph R. Davis, a native of Mississippi and nephew of Jefferson Davis, entered the service as a captain and at the organization of the Tenth Mississippi, April 12, 1861, was elected lieutenant-colonel.

The regiment was sent to Pensacola and formed a part of the army under Gen. Braxton Bragg. A detachment of this regiment was engaged in the combat on Santa Rosa Island on the night of October 8th and the morning of the 9th, 1861, in which the camp of Wilson's Zouaves was captured and destroyed.

During the fall and winter of 1861-62, Colonel Davis (for he had been so commissioned on August 21, 1861) acted as aide to President Davis, visiting the troops from New Orleans to Richmond and reporting thereon in Richmond. He was then appointed a brigadier-general, under the command of Gen. G. W. Smith, of the department of Richmond.

His brigade was composed at first of the Second, Eleventh and Forty-second regiments of Mississippi infantry, to which were added the Twenty-sixth Mississippi and the Fifty-fifth North Carolina infantry. It was on duty in southeast Virginia in the winter of 1862-63 and the spring of 1863; was forwarded to Lee in time to take part in the Gettysburg campaign, and formed part of the Confederate advance under Heth on the 1st day of July, 1863.

There was desperate fighting in which the Confederates, at first repulsed, finally swept everything before them. In the grand charge of July 3rd Gen. Joe Davis' Mississippi brigade, that fought so stoutly the first day, crossing bayonets with the Iron brigade, bore a prominent part in the work of Heth's division under Pettigrew.

The Second Mississippi, of that brigade, lost half its men that day, but was still ready to fight. Its battleflag was a few years ago still in possession of its old color-bearer, who at that time lived at Blossom Prairie, Texas. This flag has the names of more than 20 battles imprinted upon it.

Davis' brigade in the battle of the Wilderness was one of those hurled by Longstreet with such telling force on the Federals on the 7th of May, 1864. Through all the subsequent battles of the campaign between Lee and Grant -- Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, and the various successes and failures of the campaigns around Richmond and Petersburg -- Davis led his men, encouraging them to stand firm and endure to the end.

At Appomattox Court House the Mississippi brigade of Joseph R. Davis surrendered with the rest of that gallant army which for four years had been the prop and stay of the South, and had successfully defended its part of the general field until everything else was gone.

General Davis returned to his home justly proud of the honor which he had enjoyed in commanding such gallant men, resumed the practice of law, and was prominent as a citizen of Mississippi until his death at Biloxi, September 15, 1896.

Source: Confederate Military History, vol. IX, p. 249 Source Information Historical Data Systems, comp.. American Civil War General Officers [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc,