How W.W.H. Davis, 'the patron saint of Doylestown,' became a Bucks County legend

Many years ago, my literary agent secured an advance from Simon & Schuster for me to write a book about 900 Missouri horse soldiers led by a charismatic lawyer dispatched to seize Mexico’s territorial capital of Santa Fe in 1846. The Americans succeeded, then marched south to secure El Paso and Chihuahua while U.S. forces successfully invaded Monterey and Veracruz en route to conquering Mexico City.

The takeover forced Mexico to cede one-third of its country to the United States — just in time for Americans to tap incredible wealth from gold in California, silver in Nevada and oil in Texas.

“Alexander Doniphan and the Journey of the Dead” has yet to be published, though maybe someday.

In doing research for the book in Utah, I came across a link to William Watts Hart Davis. “Unbelievable,” I thought at the time.

Davis was born in Upper Southampton, lived in Doylestown for half his life and founded the Bucks County Historical Society. Much research for my weekly history columns is drawn from society archives plus Davis’ seminal book, “History of Bucks County.”

What connects Davis to the story of Alexander Doniphan is he was a veteran of the War with Mexico and for four years administered New Mexico under a constitution written by Doniphan. Davis authored “El Gringo, or New Mexico and Her People” and founded the Santa Fe Gazette, a Spanish-English newspaper. Back home, he practiced law and married Brooklyn’s Anna Carpenter, who gave birth to their seven children.

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That’s a lifetime in its own yet only part of the story of W.W.H. Davis described as “retiring and reticent about himself” in his life.

Born in 1820, he was the son of Gen. John Davis, a veteran of the War of 1812 and for whom Davisville in Southampton is named. William attended regional private schools and a military prep school in Vermont before becoming a math teacher at a Portsmouth, Virginia military academy. Returning home in 1845, Davis studied law in Doylestown, was admitted to the bar and enrolled in a law course at Harvard University.

When war with Mexico erupted in 1846, he left Harvard to join the Massachusetts Infantry, rising to captain in the attack on Mexico City. Mustered out of service in March 1848, he resumed law practice in Doylestown. Five years later President Franklin Pierce, who served with Davis in the war, appointed him U.S. district attorney for the Territory of New Mexico, where he served as acting governor and superintendent of Indian affairs for four years.

Back home, he resumed his law career and purchased and edited the Doylestown Democrat, an influential weekly.

The outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 renewed Davis’ patriotism. At the time, he was captain of an all-volunteer, 86-man militia known as the Doylestown Guard. Noting “the critical condition of the country,” Davis called the guard to duty “in favor of maintaining the honor of the Star Spangled Banner and the stability of the U.S. government.”

The guard served in the Shenandoah Valley in the opening days of the war. After three months, Davis returned to Doylestown to recruit and train 900 infantrymen and a 150-man artillery brigade constituting the 104th Pennsylvania Regiment. Abraham Lincoln appointed Davis its colonel as it marched off to defend the nation’s capital. Davis soon became captain of the combined 24th Pennsylvania Infantry.

Twice he suffered war wounds.

In the Battle of Fair Oaks outside Richmond on May 31, 1862, he was shot in the elbow amid the loss of 293 of his officers and men. Back in action the following year, he participated in the prolonged siege of Charleston Harbor. Preparing to attack Confederate Fort Wagner on Morris Island, Davis wrote of constant risks. “Every few minutes,” he noted, “a shell from James Island or Wagner, or the ball of a sharp-shooter, came in close proximity.” His Doylestown soldiers wrote letters home and “nerved themselves to meet the worst heroically” in the advance on Fort Wagner.

Though the Union Army overran the fort, a sustained counterattack forced a retreat. The following year, the army tried again to take Charleston. On the morning of July 6, an enemy artillery shell exploded as Davis was reconnoitering the front. Shrapnel mauled the colonel’s right hand with the loss of three fingers. Citing Davis’ bravery, the War Department advanced him to the rank of Brigadier General after his honorable discharge on Sept. 30, 1864.

Once again back in Doylestown, he founded the county historical society in 1880, and unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 1882 and 1884. He turned his focus to law, writing 10 books, chronicling history and guiding the society until his death and burial in Doylestown Cemetery in 1910.

Today, local historians view W.W. Hart Davis as “the patron saint of Doylestown.”

Sources include “William Watts Hart Davis in New Mexico” by Robert D. Hepler published in 1941 by the University of New Mexico; three linear feet of “William Watts Hart Davis papers” (Collection 1837) archived at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia; “104th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers” on the web at www.pa-roots.com/pacw/infantry/104th/104thorg.htm; “El Gringo” by W.W.H. Davis still in print today; information about the 104th Regiment at the Civil War Roundtable Library and Museum in Doylestown, and “General Davis and Doylestown” by Brooks McNamara published by the Doylestown Historical Society in June 2001. My thanks to society archivist Fletcher Walls for his help.

Carl LaVO can be reached at carllavo0@gmail.com

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: 'Patron saint of Doylestown' W.W.H. Davis was Civil War hero