Sam Davis (October 6, 1842 – November 27, 1863) was a Confederate soldier executed by Union forces in Pulaski, Tennessee, during the American Civil War. He is popularly known as the Boy Hero of the Confederacy, although he was 21 when he died. He became a celebrated instance of Confederate memorialization in the late 1890s and early 1900s, eulogized by Middle Tennesseeans for his valor and sacrifice. Davis' story was popularized by editor J. B. Killebrew and later by Sumner Archibald Cunningham. Due in part to the story's themes of piety and masculinity, Cunningham's portrayal of Davis fit into mythology of the "Lost Cause" in the postwar South. Early life Born October 6, 1842, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, he was the oldest son of Charles Lewis Davis and Jane (Simmons) Davis. The Davis family owned fifty-one enslaved people by 1860. As a boy Sam Davis was gifted his own enslaved person, named Coleman Davis. He attended school in Smyrna, Tennessee, and was educated at the Western Military Institute—now Montgomery Bell Academy—from 1860–61. While there he came under the influence of headmaster and future Confederate General Bushrod Johnson. He was recruited by Confederate scout forces early in the Civil War. He signed up as a private in the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment in 1861 and his regiment first fought in the Cheat Mountain; then in the Shenandoah Valley; then in the Shiloh; and finally the Perryville. Davis suffered minor injuries at Shiloh, and suffered a more severe wound at Perryville. After recovering he took on very active service as a courier for Coleman's Scouts. Capture and trial He was captured near Minor Hill, Tennessee, on November 20, 1863, having been detailed for special, hazardous duty within the Union lines of occupation around Nashville. At the time of his arrest by Union secret service agents, Davis had in his possession a miscellany of newspapers and intelligence sources, which included detailed drawings of Union fortifications at Nashville and other towns in Middle Tennessee. Imprisoned in Pulaski, which at that time was a garrisoned Union town under command of General Grenville M. Dodge, Davis faced charges of espionage and steadfastly refused to reveal the names of his informants. After Davis was found guilty, General Dodge announced that he should be hanged on a hill described by a report from the Cincinnati Daily Commercial as "a pretty eminence, north east of Pulaski, and overlooking the