| Summary: | Davis had been arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct by a Colonel Taylor. Semple argues that Davis should not be charged with more than intoxication while on duty, because he was provoked by Taylor: "the aggravations, of abusive language to an officer, and efforts to evade arrest, are in a great measure due to the irregular and inconsiderate conduct of the officer himself." Semple points out that Taylor's unnecessary emotional reaction turned the arrest into a heated physical confrontation: "No case would have been before the court, and we should have been spared the bad example, of abusive language by an inferior to his superior on the one hand, and the spectacle of a severe injury inflicted on a drunken enlisted man soldier by an officer of rank, not from a view to the promotion of the interests of the service, but prompted by the desire to revenge an insult, and executed in a moment of passion, & with the hasty intent at the time, to kill! It may be said, that this is no defence [sic] to the accused, but I respectfully submit that though drunkeness [sic] is not an excuse, yet the fact that strong and unnecessary provocation to a drunken man, is some excuse for passionate conduct on his part - Upon the testimony addressed by the prosecution, the provocation would seem to be slight, but the court will consider the fact, that Colonel Taylor as he himself says, was in a passion." He also suggests that Davis has been punished enough, "considering the severity of the wound" he sustained from Taylor ("causing some bleeding, and confinement for 10 or 11 days"). During the Civil War, Semple served as a captain of an artillery battery organized in Montgomery (known as Semple's Battery). He was later appointed a major and transferred to Mobile.
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