Benjamin Franklin Davis

Benjamin Franklin Davis
Benjamin Franklin Davis
	1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment
Commands held	8th New York Cavalry Regiment; 1st Brigade, 1st Div., Cavalry Corps
Battles/wars	American Civil War Peninsula Campaign; Northern Virginia Campaign; Chancellorsville Campaign; Battle of Harpers Ferry; Battle of Brandy Station †;

Benjamin Franklin "Grimes" Davis (October, 1831 – June 9, 1863) was an American

Indian wars, and then led Union cavalry in the American Civil War before dying in combat. He led a daring escape from the Confederate-encircled Union garrison at Harpers Ferry

.

Biography

Born in

1st U.S. Cavalry Regiment, July 30, 1861. Davis had three brothers who served in the Confederate States Army, two with the 11th Mississippi Infantry and a third in the 2nd Mississippi

. Neither brother who served with the 11th Mississippi survived the war. The brother who served with the 2nd Mississippi survived the war but took his own life several years after hostilities ceased.

Commissioned

12th Illinois Cavalry determined to fight their way out northward out of the encirclement

.

Crossing the Potomac River on a pontoon bridge under cover of night, 1,300 Union cavalrymen quietly escaped, overwhelming or avoiding Confederate pickets assigned to cover the winding road north. While moving in pitch black darkness, Davis came across an artillery wagon train belonging to Confederate Major General James Longstreet, and using his deep Mississippi-accented voice, ordered their unsuspecting commander to change direction and accept his unit as cavalry escort. As sunlight broke, the wagon drivers were startled to discover drawn pistols from their blue-clad escort, and as a result Davis's command not only escaped to Union lines at Greencastle, Pennsylvania, by morning September 15, but also captured Longstreet's forty-wagon reserve ordnance train with no losses. Davis was promoted to major in the Regular Army for his exploit.

"When Colonel Davis found the rebels he did not stop at anything, but went for them heavy. I believe he liked to fight the rebels as well as he liked to eat."

Trooper of the 8th New York Cavalry^[1]

Davis led the 1st Brigade of Brig. Gen.

Gettysburg Campaign, Davis led the brigade in the Battle of Brandy Station. In the early hours of June 9, 1863, Davis's men charged a South Carolina artillery battery near Beverly's Ford and were met by a strong cavalry counterattack, which sent most of the brigade reeling. Davis himself refused to fall back and challenged all comers to combat. He twirled his saber with one hand, firing his Colt revolver with the other until he ran out of ammunition. Confederate Lt. O. R. Allen of Major Caball E. Flournoy's 6th Virginia Cavalry Regiment

charged at Davis, hugging his horse's neck to evade Davis's saber slashing, then fired his pistol three times at point-blank range. The third shot struck Davis in the forehead, killing him instantly.

Davis was a man of rough manners and a stern disciplinarian. One of his troopers described him as "a proud tyrannical devil" as likely to be killed by his own soldiers as by the Confederates. The Provost Marshal General of the Army of the Potomac, Marsena R. Patrick, described him as "our best cavalry officer". He was buried in the West Point cemetery.^[1]