Lieut. L. P. Davidson, U. S. A., was born in 1816, at Plattsburg, N. Y. He was educated for Middlebury College under the care of the Rev. Canon Townsend, Rector of the parish of St. George and St. Thomas, a scholar of rare abilities, who is still living at Clarenceville, Canada East. Young Davidson, at an early age, became partial to classical lore. He translated and versified several of the books of Virgil, and filled a number of manuscript volumes with original poems and translations from both Latin and Greek poets.
In the year 1831 he entered Middlebury College, where he remained two years, until 1833, when he was transferred to the United States Military Academy at West Point, appointed at large by General Jackson, through the representations of the late General Macomb, to whom his talents had greatly recommended him. He graduated in 1837, in the same class with Sedgwick, Hooker, Vogdes, Benham, and other officers subsequently greatly distinguished in the Mexican war and the war of the great Rebellion. On the formation of the 1st regiment of dragoons, at his own request, he was assigned to this branch of the service, and immediately entered upon active duty on the western frontier.
While in the service he did much to elevate the moral as well as the military standing of the soldier, and, among other good works, advocated the establishment of "post libraries," and wrote several songs of a stirring character, in praise of a soldier's life, especially such a life as could only be found in the excitement and dangers
