Two Davies Brothers in the Confederate Calvary
submitted by Bob Chope
William Henry Davies (1841-1862) and Roderick Landon Davies (1842-1868)
This is a photo of the original tintype now in the possession of Debbie Lawson. Although there is some disagreement about which is William and which is Roderick, the majority opinion is that Roderick is on the left and William is on the right. The photo was taken in Lynchburg in May, 1861. Both joined the Amherst Mounted Rangers, 2nd VA Calvary. William died of measles early in the Civil War before seeing much combat. Roderick served under J.E.B. Stuart throughout the war, but he died afterwards from a hip wound he received at Spotsylvania Courthouse. They were the older brothers of Bob Chope's great grandfather. Click here to see their place in the Davies Family Tree..
Editor's Note: A copy of this photo also appears on the back cover of "Amherst Men in Grey", by Robert J. Faught, published by the Amherst County Museum and Historical Society. We visited Faught's home in 1998, because it once belonged to my great grandfather, John Franklin Davies, who wrote the Civil War Letters. These two brothers were his first cousins.
The photo shown above is compressed for the web (618 X 768) and is not recommended for printing. Cousin Ron Wallin volunteered to "clean up and restore" Bob Chope's original, and the result is below. The restored version is displayed in the same reduced size, but the file is not compressed (2248 X 2895) and will give better results when printed. Thank you Ron.
