THE ESTATE OF BURKE DAVIS

“Burke Davis has contributed a worthy addition to the literature of the war, and done so with all the reportorial and interpretive skills we’ve come to expect from him.” — The Washington Post Book World 

Burke Davis worked for the Charlotte News for ten years, beginning in 1937 as a sports reporter and editor. Then followed a four-year tenure as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun and almost ten years as a columnist for the Greensboro Daily News. In 1960 he became special projects writer for Colonial Williamsburg Inc, where he worked until 1978.

Best known for his works on the American Civil War, Davis applied his narrative skill and eye for detail to bringing to life accounts of the Appomattox Campaign, Union General William Tecumseh, Sherman's infamous march to the sea, and the approximately 5,000 Black soldiers who fought in the American Revolution. His biographies of Confederate figures were heralded for their complex and astute examinations that dispensed with the hero narratives that had come before.

Davis received numerous lifetime achievement awards, among them election to the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame (1984), induction into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame (2000), and an honorary doctorate from Greensboro College (2000). David died in 2006 at the age of 92.