Henry Brevard Davidson

Davidson's war was the middle of a long career in uniform and public works. After West Point in 1853, where he ranked thirty-third, he served in Oregon and New Mexico, then moved to the quartermaster department. In late 1864 he took a cavalry brigade to the Shenandoah Valley, where Jubal Early's force was effectively destroyed at Waynesboro in March 1865. Afterward he worked as a deputy sheriff in New Orleans, then in California as an inspector of public works at San Pedro, a civil engineer and a Southern Pacific railroad agent at Danville.

What the plaque says

Henry Brevard Davidson January 28, 1831 - March 4, 1899 Born in a house which stood here. Enlisted in the 1st Tenn. Volunteers for the Mexican War; on graduation from US Military Academy in 1853, commissioned in Dragoons. Resigning for the Confederacy and rapidly promoted to colonel, he was captured at Island No. 10; promoted on exchange and given a brigade in Wheeler's Cavalry Corps. Surrendering at Greensboro, N.C., he moved to California, where he was once a deputy Secretary of State. He is buried in Oakland, Calif.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration — 0.9 mi
  The Shelbyville show grounds where the Tennessee Walking Horse has been crowned world grand champion each late summer since 1939, and where the practice of soring is part of the story.
• Jack Daniel Distillery — 15 mi
  The oldest registered distillery in the United States, in a limestone hollow outside Lynchburg, where the tour now names Nathan Nearest Green, an enslaved man, as the first master distiller.
• Henry Horton State Park — 15 mi
  A Duck River park on Governor Henry Horton's former farm in Marshall County, with a mill ruin from 1845, kayak floats and the grave of a governor the House declined to impeach.
• Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park — 20 mi
  A 2,000-year-old enclosure of piled stone and earth on the bluffs above the forks of the Duck River, built by Native people between about 80 and 550 A.D., with a museum and waterfall trails.

More markers nearby

• Prentice Cooper — 0.3 mi
• Wartrace — 7.6 mi
• The Webb School — 9.6 mi
• Henry Hollis Horton — 15 mi