The Men of Randolph-Macon College and the Civil War

In 1861, talk of secession transformed into armed conflict. Many of the men educated at Randolph-Macon College in the preceding 29 years immediately responded to the calls of their state militias to serve, while others later enlisted or were conscripted into the Confederate or Union armies. Others served in public office, or were ultimately drawn into the conflict in the last days in reserve units in local defense. These are their stories.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Wilbur Fisk Davis, Class of 1857 (A.B.) and 1860 (A.M.)

Davis enlisted in the Charlottesville (VA) Light Artillery on March 20, 1862. He was promoted to corporal on April 30, 1863 and then to sergeant major a month later on June 1, 1863. he was taken prisoner on May 12, 1864 at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, held at Fort Delaware, and paroled on October 31, 1864. He rejoined his unit in December 1864, but was transferred to the Veteran Reserve, or Invalid, Corps' Topographical Engineer Department in February 1865.

Davis was a teacher in Westmoreland County in 1870. He became a Methodist minister in 1876 and served several circuits in Virginia, finally settling back in Westmoreland County, where the 1910 census lists him as "Preacher of Gospel" and where he died in 1912 and is buried in the Hickory Hill Cemetery.

1 comment:

Steven G. Meeks9/27/2013
The Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society published Fisk's memoir "Recollections of my Life - Especially During the War 1861-5" in volumes 65 and 66 of their "Magazine of Albemarle County History," 2007 and 2008.
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