Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/746

Rh senate, and he performed the duties of that station until 1857, when he was elected to represent his district in Congress. This position he continued to hold until 1861, when he resigned to enter the military service of the Confederate States. The people of the generation that has grown up since that famous struggle cannot imagine the enthusiasm that pervaded all classes in the opening of the war. Not only the young men rallied enthusiastically to the defense of the South, but men of middle life, and even in some instances the aged were eager to show their devotion to home and country by giving up the ease and comforts of home to risk the perils of the camp, the march and battle, and if need be lay life itself upon the altar of country. Though past the military age, Colonel Davis was eager to serve his country once more in the field. He was made a brigadier-general of State troops, and then major-general, and in this capacity he led to Bowling Green, Ky., 2,000 sixty days' men, raised in response to the call of Albert Sidney Johnston in the fall and winter of 1861. He was assigned by General Hardee to command of the fortifications at Bowling Green, December 20th, and one of Hardee's brigades was also for a time under his command. When the period of enlistment of his troops expired he returned to Mississippi and continued to serve his State and country in various positions, also resuming the practice of law. While defending a prisoner he became involved in a quarrel with the prosecuting attorney and was shot in the court house at Columbus, Miss., December 15, 1873.

Brigadier-General Winfield Scott Featherston was born in Rutherford county, Tenn., August 5, 1821. He was educated at various academies and while at school in Georgia, in 1836, served as a volunteer against the Creeks. He afterward studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1840. He removed to Mississippi and soon became prominent in official circles. He was elected to