Sam Davis, Boy Hero, Captured Here

Minor Hill, Tennessee

Depending on whose account you believe (the victors or the vanquished), Sam Davis, "Boy Hero of the Confederacy," was either a warrior and a spy, or a noble youth who was only doing his duty by carrying papers stolen by someone else. The second version is the one favored in the little park that marks the supposed spot where he was captured by the Yankees.

Various plaques and signs on the site claim that Davis was "asleep under a plum tree" when Union soldiers grabbed him -- hardly the actions of a spy on the run -- and that the spot was pinpointed 60 years later (even though the plum tree was long gone) by the wife of a Confederate veteran who had a special hand-drawn map. The 1926 dedication of the monument that marks the spot was attended by 2,500 Sam Davis fans, including Tennessee's governor, who commanded the young people in the crowd to "be loyal to their country and true to their friends" just like Sam, who refused to betray them and was subsequently hanged by the Yankees. Davis is still a folk hero in Middle Tennessee, and the grassy spot of his capture -- hallowed ground -- is well maintained. Its tombstone-like monument is shaded by a single tree, but it's not a plum tree.