Right at the junction of County Road 2228 and County Road 2225 at the top of a small hill sits William Davis Family Cemetery.

The cemetery is named after Davis family patriarch William Davis who was born in South Carolina in 1779 and immigrated to Pike County where he died in 1862.

The cemetery was established in 1862 after William Davis’s death and has served as a family cemetery for the Davis clan ever since.

The Davis family has produced many interesting characters in the 151 years that the cemetery has been in service, and, naturally, some of these characters have taken to calling the family cemetery home after passing.

One of the more decorated members of the Davis family is Samuel Davis (1836-1905). Davis served with the Confederate army during the Civil War as a private in the 53^rd Alabama Partisan Rangers, a division of the First Alabama Cavalry Battalion.

The Partisan Rangers were one of the more active cavalry divisions in the second half of the Civil War, seeing action at Cherokee Station, Little Bear Creek, Thompson’s Station, Florence, Brentwood, Town Creek, Streight’s Raid, Chickamauga, the Atlanta Campaign and Siege, Jonesboro, and the Carolinas Campaign.

The most notable action undertaken by the Partisan Rangers was a raid against Union General Sherman’s vanguard during his infamous March to the Sea from Atlanta to Savannah. During the raid, the 53^rd attacked, captured, and destroyed a baggage train that was supplying the Union army around Atlanta.

The Partisan Rangers surrendered with General Joseph E. Johnston at Durham Station, North Carolina on 26 April 1865.