James M. M. Davis, a great-great grandnephew of Thomas Jefferson, was born on August 26, 1847, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Davis served in the Home Guard prior to enlisting in the Confederate Army on June 29, 1864, and saw action with Captain Archibald Graham's company of the 1st Virginia Rockbridge Artillery. Davis returned home on April 14, 1865, after his unit surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, and resumed his studies at the University of Virginia, from which he graduated with a law degree in 1868. He began a legal practice in Charlottesville and later moved to Richmond, where he joined the firm Kean & Davis. Davis died of consumption on July 24, 1883.
From the guide to the James M. M. Davis diary, Davis, James M. M. diary, 1863-1865, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
