Nature Of Coleman Scouts

The nature of Coleman’s scouts were reserved for the truly daring, but critical to obtaining intelligence that could aid the Confederacy in gaining an edge on the Union army. This seems all too familiar to the term of a spy, but the misconception between the two is often made, and can be easily corrected. Scouts during these times were easily identifiable, due to the requirement to be uniformed. To be a scout, you had to be known. A spy would be dressed in civilian clothing and would undertake whatever means necessary to infiltrate and gain all crucial information in the stealthiest ways possible. Sam Davis, as a scout, would procure vital strategic documents, newspapers or any other material he could on the next Union move to be made. He would …show more content…
En route to Chattanooga with relevant documents obtained in Nashville, Sam stopped to rest in Minor Hill right above Pulaski in Giles County. Sam Davis’s rest had been short lived, only to be discovered by Union Federals in Confederate uniform. They insisted on taking young Sam in to meet their General and to take his firearm. It was in that moment that Sam knew he had become a prisoner of war. The Federals brought Sam to Grenville Dodge who described Sam as “a fine soldierly looking young man, dressed in a faded Federal overcoat, one of our Army hats, and top boots. He had a frank open face, which was inclined to brightness. In all things he showed himself to be a true soldier.” The Union soldiers discovered their strategies documented within his personal effects, including hidden in his boot. General Grenville inclined to give Sam many chances to save his own freedom and life for the name true name of Coleman, but Sam blatantly refused. On November 24, 1864, Sam Davis was sentenced to death, as a spy. The only reason General Dodge chose this sentence was to send a clear message to the Confederates that he was angered at the overrunning of his troops at