Major-General Joseph Robert Davis (January 12, 1825 – September 15, 1896) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the commanding general of the Mississippi National Guard from 1888 to 1895.

[1][2] During the American Civil War, he served as aide-de-camp to the President of the Confederate States and commanded a brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia.

Davis engaged in private law practice in Madison County, Mississippi until 1860,[5] when he was elected to the state senate.

He was soon made Lieutenant-Colonel of the 10th Mississippi Infantry, after which he served on the personal staff of his uncle, President Jefferson Davis, in Richmond, Virginia, as an aide-de-camp with the rank of Colonel of Cavalry.

[3] Commissioned a brigadier-general for the provisional army of the Confederate States to rank from September 15, 1862,[6] and confirmed by the Confederate States Senate only after charges of nepotism were freely aired and his nomination once rejected, he was assigned a brigade in Heth's Division, 3d (Hill's) Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, which he led through some of the most bitter battles of the war.