Captain Thomas Asbury Davis

Autauga Rifles

Surgeon, C.S.A.

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The Autauga Citizen - April 25, 1861

Autauga Volunteers - Several of our leading men are now engaged in getting up a rifle company to be called the Autauga Rifles, and which is now nearly completed, to be tendered to the Confederate States. The Prattville Dragoons, a fine looking company, numbering about sixty men, have already tendered their services and will be received. At least one hundred and fifty Autaugians have already gone to the wars, they having joined the different companies that have been formed in the counties of Dallas, Lowndes, and Montgomery. We do not like this, as Autauga receives no credit for it. But our patriotic old county will soon have two as fine companies in the field as ever marched to repel an invading foe, and we feel satisfied that they will give a good account of themselves if they have an opportunity. Our patriotic citizens have liberally subscribed for the families of those who could not leave home without some provision being made for their wives and children. Mr. Pratt, our liberal and patriotic townsman, subscribed five hundred dollars, and agreed to put down ten times as much more if it should be necessary. Messrs. Doster, Northington, Tarleton, and others whose names we do not now remember, have also subscribed liberally. Autauga will do her duty.

The Autauga Citizen - April, 1861

This fine looking company (Autauga Rifles), of which we spoke a few days ago in our paper, arrived in our city on yesterday, and marched direct to the fair grounds. This company is composed of the very best men of Old Autauga, who have been panting and thirsting for a fight with the Black Republican mercenaries of Old Abe for some time. Their destination is Corinth, Mississippi.

Battle Flag of the 6th Alabama Infantry

Thomas Asbury Davis was appointed Captain of the Autauga Rifles on March 28, 1861 by authority of the governor of Alabama. The Autauga Rifles were assigned to the 6th Alabama Infantry Regiment as Company M at Montgomery, Ala., May 6, 1861. The 6th was first ordered to Corinth, and from there it went to Virginia. Reaching Manassas Junction, it was brigaded under Gen'l Richard Ewell. Davis was present with the Company at the first battle of Manasses and Yorktown, Virginia. He was a member of the 6^th Alabama Regimental Band. His commission expired on April 28, 1862 while at Yorktown, Virginia where he reenlisted, and was then appointed Surgeon of the Regiment by Gen'l Robert Rodes, who had succeeded Ewell's Command. The Autauga Rifles became 2nd Company G upon the reorganization at Yorktown. Davis tendered his services faithfully to the Regiment while they fought at the battles of Seven Pines, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, Boonsboro, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg. While home on leave in January 1863, Thomas A. Davis married Dora Ann Motley of Independence, Autauga County. Dora Ann is the daughter of Penelope Motley, and the older sister of Robert J. Motley of the Autauga Rifles. A few months later, Davis submitted his resignation while he was surgeon. His resignation was approved by Special Order No. 103; A&I.G.O. by command of the Secretary of War April 28, 1863.

Lt. James Monroe Thompson of the Autauga Rifles had this to say about Captain Davis......."after being promoted to Surgeon of the Regiment, he was not lost to our company, being in a position to serve us better and did not forget us, and many of us are indebted to him for favors that can never be forgotten." J.M. Thompson Reminiscences of the Autauga Rifles

Thomas Davis' service to his country did not end here. While home in Autauga County, at age 40, Davis organized a Home Guard unit on August 17, 1864 which he was Captian. The Company was known as T.A. Davis' Local Defense Company. Many men from the western portion of the county joined his Company.

After the war, Dr. Davis remained in the Autaugaville area where he is found on the 1870 Census, Age 43, Physician, but his wife Dora is not listed with him. Dora Ann Davis died about 1867 at the young age of 34 and is buried in the Swift Creek Cemetery at Autaugaville.

A January 2, 1880 article in The Southern Signal newspaper has Dr. T. A. Davis’ residence at Verbena in Chilton County, where Miss Nettie A. Davis was wed to Mr. Herbert H. McGuin.

Sometime later, Dr. Davis may have moved to Anniston, AL. It is known that he owned and operated a factory there in the 1890s, as witnessed to by this newsclipping from the Clanton newspaper "THE BANNER" during 1893, found in Charlene Vinson's Genealogical Abstracts from The Banner 1893 in Clanton Chilton County, Alabama....

"The broom factory of Dr. T.A. Davis, of Anniston is filling a 12,000 ton order of pipe for Providence, R.I."

Records at the ADAH have T.A. Davis, 6^th Ala. Infantry, Doctor, on a list of men who died at the Soldiers Home, Mountain Creek which was published in The Age Herald, on April 20, 1913. His date of death is given as January, 1906. The ADAH records indicate that Dr. Thomas A. Davis is buried in Tuscaloosa. The Soldiers Home at Mountain Creek is in the lower portion of east Chilton County just south of Verbena. Today it is known as Confederate Memorial Park. However, Larry Nobles book, Old Autauga, Portrait of a Deep South County, has Dr. Thomas Asbury Davis buried at the Hillside Cemetery, Anniston, Alabama. He was reported to have remarried, but his second wife is unknown. Davis may indeed be buried at Tuscaloosa, although the Hillside Cemetery at Anniston does have a small obelisk and CSA marker for Captain Davis. The obelisk reads, "His memory is blessed. This stone erected to his memory by his children and grandchildren." Buried next to Captian Davis' obelisk is "Annie Huggins, daughter of T.A. & B.C. Davis, Aug. 26, 1871 - Sept. 26, 1888."

Hillside Cemetery, Anniston, AL