Davies Manor stood just north of the stage route between Memphis and Nashville, and during the Civil War the house and plantation were visited by soldiers from both sides. When the war began, brothers Logan E. Davies and James B. Davies jointly operated the plantation, where their slaves grew cotton, corn, and wheat and raised livestock. James Davies joined the 38th Tennessee Infantry in 1862 and fought at Perryville, Lookout Mountain, and Atlanta, among other engagements. Younger brother Henry Newton Davies also joined the Confederate army and died at the Battle of Nashville. Logan Davies, his wife, Frances Anna Vaughn Davies, and their slaves maintained the plantation throughout the war. According to family tradition, during a foraging expedition in 1863 Frances Davies confronted a Union officer who tried to take her horse and other livestock, cut the horse free when he refused to return it, and told him, "I have my horse. You go." Frances Davies gave birth to two children during the war and died in 1865. After the war, James Davies rejoined his brother in running the plantation, which included 1,237 acres by 1894. The trauma that James Davies associated with his battlefront experiences influenced his two sons to become physicians. Joel W. Royster constructed Davies Manor after acquiring the land in 1831 and sold the property to the Davies brothers in 1851. The house, which may be the earliest dwelling in Shelby County, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and Ellen Davies Rodgers deeded it to the Davies Manor Association the next year.