Sam Davis House in Smyrna Tennessee

The Sam Davis house in Smyrna Tennessee is the home of Sam Davis.  Sam Davis was a Confederate soldier who was captured while acting as a courier.  He was charged with espionage, and pretty much sentenced to hang.  He was told that if he would give the names of his informants, his life would be spared.

Sam refused to name names, and he was hanged.  The accounts describe him as being very brave during the whole ordeal.  Afterwards, the 21 year old was celebrated as a heroic martyr by the South.

And now tours are given of his home.  He is buried on the property, and a nice museum is housed inside too. 

It was around $24 for the two of us.  We had a very friendly guide who I believe was named Taylor who showed us around.

We saw several slave quarters and went through the home.  Of course the film in the museum and our guide both told us about Sam Davis.

This tour had a lot going for it, and I think we were here for at least a couple of hours.  They actually have bee hives here now too, and you can actually purchase some Sam Davis honey in the gift shop!

We did not know about this at all, but, in 2016, one of the Blue Angles, Jeff Kuss, actually crashed on the property.

Jeff Kuss was flying his plane when something went wrong.  It seems that Kuss could have ejected out of the plane and saved his own life, but others would potentially be in harms way with an unmanned plane in the air.  Jeff stayed with his plane and crashed it in the vacant field- sacrificing his life as he stayed in control of the plane and the situation.

Taylor told us they do not advertise this incident, or really mention it that often, as the home does not want to exploit this tragedy.  There is a small monument on the property to Kuss, and he did point out the general area where the wreck occurred.

After our tour, which was the last one of the day, and we were the last visitors on the property, our guide stuck around to answer questions and to chat some.  We also realized that our guide left shortly after us (he was obviously staying a bit late for our benefit).  We really appreciated that....  he didn't run us off so he could get home on time or anything!

So, I think it is obvious that we were really glad that we got to stop here.