Henry T. Davis: Texas Ranger and Military Officer (1834–1888)
By: William V. Scott
Published: November 25, 2024
Updated: November 25, 2024
Henry T. Davis, Texas Ranger, military officer, and government official, was born on June 13, 1834, in Raleigh, North Carolina. His parents’ names are not known in genealogical records. Davis traveled to Texas by the mid-1850s, and on July 20, 1855, he enlisted as a private in Capt. James Hughes Callahan’s Company of Mounted Rangers at San Marcos, Texas. He served with the company for just under three months and was discharged on October 19, 1855. Another member of the company was Isham L. Davis of Lockhart (unsure of any relation). Callahan led a punitive expedition into Mexico (see CALLAHAN EXPEDITION).
Henry T. Davis married Susan T. Brownrigg, daughter of George Bloomfield and Theresa (Thomas) Brownrigg of San Augustine, Texas, on February 3, 1859, in San Antonio. They later had a son, James Levingston Davis. On the 1860 census, the Davises were listed in San Marcos, where Henry was a merchant.
Capt. Henry T. Davis's Company F of the Frontier Regiment, Texas State Troops, organized in Hays County on March 4, 1862, and was tasked with maintaining Camp Davis in western Gillespie County and Camp Llano in eastern Mason County. The camps were two of eighteen Confederate outposts placed a day's ride apart, from the Red River to the Rio Grande, to prevent American Indian attacks and Federal invasion. Camp Davis was named for the captain, while Camp Llano served as his headquarters. Both posts were garrisoned by Company F, which numbered 136 men engaged in scouting duty. Davis’s troops mustered out on February 7, 1863.
Davis then was mustered as captain of Company F, Col. James Duff’s Thirty-third Texas Cavalry, at Camp Davis by Lt. Edwin Frost Lilly, acting quartermaster of the regiment. Almost a month later, on March 2, 1863, Davis and his company received seventy gray cloth uniforms, tall black hats, and other camp equipment. The following months were spent on the Rio Grande while posted at Fort Brown, where they were observed by British observer, Col. Arthur Fremantle of the Coldstream Guards. In June 1864 Davis and his company were stationed at Victoria, and in August 1864 he was detached from service to serve on a general court-martial in Bonham. Davis was paroled at Houston in July 1865, following the surrender of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith.
In the 1870 census, Davis was a telegraph operator in Orange, and in 1880 he was employed as a bookkeeper. He was appointed as the postmaster for Orange on May 26, 1885, and reappointed on February 15, 1886. Davis died at the age of fifty-four on October 4, 1888, in Orange and was buried there at Evergreen Cemetery. His widow Susan Davis was appointed as the postmaster of Orange on November 19, 1888, and served until February 28, 1889. She died on July 7, 1918, in Orange County, and was buried next to her husband.
Bibliography:
“Henry T. Davis,” Find A Grave Memorial (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14126455/henry_t-davis), accessed October 10, 2024. Darren L. Ivey, The Texas Rangers: A Registry and History (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2019). Joseph Luther, The Odyssey of Texas Ranger James Callahan (Charleston: History Press, 2017). Vertical Files, Tobin and Anne Armstrong Texas Ranger Research Center, Waco (Ranger Muster Roll).
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
William V. Scott, “Davis, Henry T.,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/davis-henry-t.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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- November 25, 2024
- November 25, 2024
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