Confederate veteran’s daughter honored to be part of history at Unknown Soldier’s burial
By Mindy Tate, Editor
mtate@williamsonherald.com
Corinne Davenport said although her Confederate veteran father lived until she was 12 years old and she met some of his fellow veterans, she was too young at the time to care too much about his service.
But on Saturday, Davenport, 93, had a front row seat to history when she along with two sons of Civil War veterans — one Confederate and one Union — were on hand for the service for the Reinternment of Franklin’s Unknown Civil War Soldier.
The Soldier’s remains were unearthed May 14 on a construction site in south Franklin and on Saturday, he was reinterred in Franklin’s Rest Haven Cemetery.
Davenport is the daughter of Henry Clay Smith of Lebanon, who enlisted at age 18 in the Confederate forces at Chatham, Tenn., with Co. G, 4th Tennessee Regiment, also known as McLemore’s, Davenport said. She said he also fought under the command of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, although she does not know whether he participated in the Battle of Franklin.
Smith was discharged May 18, 1865, at Camp Chase, Ohio, where he had been held captive. He returned to Lebanon and had two sons with his first wife, who died, Davenport said.
“Then he met my mother and they married in 1912 in Hartsville in Trousdale County,” Davenport said, adding her father had been a real estate agent when he returned from the war.
Davenport was born in Nashville on Dec. 5, 1915, when her father was 73 and her mother was 42. She was the second child of the couple, having had a brother born in 1913, who died six years ago after living in Memphis.
“They moved to Old Hickory and he worked at the powder plant during World War I,” said Davenport.
“He had soldier friends that visited but didn’t interest me at my age,” Davenport said of her childhood. “He had a minie ball in his knee and used a cane to walk and attended several veterans’ reunions.”
Henry Clay Smith died in 1927.
“He died when I was 12 and he was buried in his uniform in the Confederate Circle in Mount Olivet Cemetery,” Davenport said.
Active herself in the Kate Litton Hickman Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Davenport only found out about the Unknown Soldier the week before the event, thanks to longtime family friend, Jerry Barker.
“I thought whoever was involved in Franklin did an excellent job. It was unbelievable to me they got that together in that short a time. It was impressive and I felt so honored to be included,” Davenport said. “They had done a lot of research and I thought they were fair to the North and South.
While in Franklin Saturday with her daughter Susan, Davenport met two other Civil War veterans’ offspring — Harold Becker, 93, of Grand Rapids, Mich., representing the Union Side, and James Brown Sr., 97, of Knoxville, representing the Confederate side.
I met with the sons and enjoyed meeting them and knowing about them,” Davenport said.
Pictured above: Corinne Davenport (center) with Civil War sons James Brown Sr. and Harold Becker (right)
For more photos from the Reinternment of Franklin's Unknown Civil War Soldier, go to AWphotos.zenfolio.com or www.williamsonherald.com.
Posted on: 10/15/2009
|
