Colonel J.B.  Davis was born in Fairfield County, of Scotch-Irish decent, about the year 1835.  He received his early education in the schools of the country, at Mount Zion Academy, at Winnsboro, in same county.  Afterwards he was admitted to the United States Military School, at West Point, but after remaining for two years, resigned and commenced the study of medicine.  He graduated some years before the war, and entered upon the practice of his profession in the western part of the county.  He was elected Captain of the first company raised in Fairfield, and served in Gregg’s first six mouths’ volunteers in Charleston.  After the fall of Sumter, his company, with several others, disbanded.

Returning home, he organized a company for the Confederate service, was elected Captain, and joined the Fifteenth Regiment, then forming in Columbia under Colonel DeSaussure.  He was in all the battles of the Maryland campaign, in the brigade under General Drayton, and in all the great battles with Kershaw’s Brigade.  In the winter of 1863 he was made Colonel of the Fifteenth, and served with his regiment until the surrender.  On several occasions he was in command of the brigade, as senior Colonel present.  He was in command at Cold Harbor after the death of Colonel Keitt.  Colonel Davis was one among the best tacticians in the command; had a soldierly appearance—­tall, well-developed, a commanding voice, and an all round good officer.

He returned home after the war and began the practice of medicine, and continues it to the present.

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COLONEL F.S.  LEWIE.

Colonel F.S.  Lewie was born in Lexington County, in 1830, and received his early training there.  He attended the High School at Monticello, in Fairfield County.  He taught school for awhile, then began the study of medicine.  He attended the “College of Physicians and Surgeons” in Paris, France, for two years, returning a short while before the breaking out of hostilities between the North and South.

At the outbreak of the war he joined Captain Gibbs’ Company, and was made Orderly Sergeant.  He served with that company, under Colonel Gregg, in the campaign against Sumter.  His company did not disband when the fort fell, but followed Gregg to Virginia.  At the expiration of their term of enlistment he returned to Lexington County, raised a company, and joined the Fifteenth.  He was in most of the battles in which that regiment was engaged.  Was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and in 1864 was elected to the State Senate from Lexington.  He refused to leave his regiment, and did not accept the honor conferred upon him by the people of his county.  While with his regiment in South Carolina, early in the spring of 1865, he was granted a few days’ furlough to visit his home, at which smallpox had broken out, but was captured by Sherman’s raiders before reaching home.  He was parolled in North Carolina.