In November 1863, while carrying intelligence on Union troop movements, Sam Davis was captured near the Alabama border and jailed in Pulaski, Tennessee. Interrogated by General Grenville Dodge and others, he was told that if information were not forthcoming, the Federals would hang him as a spy. Sam refused to cooperate, claiming he was a scout and a courier, not a spy. He was swiftly tried and hanged on November 27, 1863. His stoic and calm behavior made an impression on all who witnessed his death. Originally buried in Pulaski, his body was later brought to Smyrna for burial in the family graveyard across Stewarts Creek, and eventually, at his mother's insistence, his grave was moved to its current location. In the 1890s, a fund-raising drive began to place a statue in his memory at the Tennessee State Capitol in Nashville, and veterans and their widows from across the nation contributed over $7,000 for it. The statue was dedicated in the spring of 1909 with great fanfare. Another statue of Sam Davis was also placed in the public square in Pulaski by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.