| Abstract | Foregrounds the memorializing of Sam Davis, a 21-year-old Confederate soldier executed by the Union army in 1863 for gathering intelligence behind enemy lines within a "case study in collective memory making as part of the reconstruction of white southern identity." A folk hero in his home state of Tennessee by the end of the 19th century, he was viewed as embodying an idealized image of the South. The author traces the course of efforts to commemorate Davis's heroic death and the widespread support they received while juxtaposing the treatment of Davis with the lack of recognition of the plight of slaves on his father's plantation and of numerous Tennessee blacks' service during the Civil War and subsequent conflicts.
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