Tombstone Tuesday – Benjamin Thomas Davis

Benjamin Thomas Davis was born in 1829 in Chesterfield, Chesterfield, South Carolina. He was enumerated in the 1850 & 1860 Census. Benjamin was killed at Ft. Stevens, Virginia on 28 May 1864[1]. He was 35 years old at his death.  

Benjamin Thomas Davis and Mary Jane Knight were married about 1849 in South Carolina. Mary Jane Knight, daughter of Richard Knight and Temperance, was born in 1828 in South Carolina.

Living with Benjamin and Mary Jane Davis in the 1860 census is Ann E. Lisenby, born in 1850 in NC. The relationship of Ann E. Lisenby to Benjamin and Mary Jane is unknown.

Benjamin Thomas Davis entered the war of 20 December 1861. He served as Captain of his own unit. [2]The unit was formed at Georgetown, SC on Jan 19, 1862 as the B. T. Davis Company, South Carolina Volunteers, Infantry (SCVI). 

Captain Davis was granted a 30-day furlough August 1^st, 1863. In a letter within his Civil War file, the surgeon general stated that he was suffering from chronic diarrhea.

Captain Davis was killed on the battlefield at Bermuda Hundred, Virginia on 28 May 1864[3]. He was buried there in Virginia.

General W. D. Craig had a Civil War Marker placed in memory of Capt. Davis at the Chesterfield Public Cemetery, Chesterfield, South Carolina. [4]

Tombstone photo courtesy of Jason Cockfield

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[1] Randolph W. Kirkland Jr., Broken Fortunes: South Carolina Soldiers, Sailors and Citizens Who Died in the Service of Their Country and State in the War for Southern Independence, 1861-1865 (Columbia, South Carolina: Univ of South Carolina, 1997), page 87.

[2] Johnson Hagood, Memoirs of the War of Succession (Camden, SC 29020: Jim Fox Books, 1997 (Reprint)), page 402.

[3] Ancestry, "Civil War Service Records," digital images, fold3.com (http://www.fold3.com : accessed 2012), Service record for B. Thomas Davis (Capt., Company  E, Capt. B.T. Davis Company, 21st SCVI); citing National Archives microfilm publication "M267, Confederate Compiled Military Service Records."

[4] Find A Grave, http://www.findagrave.com, Accessed on 15 May 2012; Headstone for B. Thomas "Tom" Davis; Memorial # 39176085.