General William Lee Davidson was a well-known patriot leader in the southern Piedmont area. He served as an officer in George Washington's Continental Army at Valley Forge, then led militia forces in his home state. After British General Charles Lord Cornwallis captured Charleston in early 1780, he marched toward North Carolina and attacked Charlotte in September.

General Davidson rallied several hundred patriots to battle them at Cowans Ford, slowing the British retreat while American forces retreated to Guilford Court House. The battle that the Americans and British fought there a month later weakened the Redcoats and hastened their surrender.

At the conclusion of the battle of Cowans Ford, searchers found General Davidson's body stripped naked by the British. His friends and wife buried him hastily by torchlight five miles away at Hopewell Presbyterian Church on Beatties Ford Road, intending to hide the body from British troops who may have sought it for further desecration at his home church, Centre Presbyterian Church.

Davidson College was named in honor of General William Lee Davidson, a local Revolutionary War hero who died at the battle of Cowan's Ford in 1781. His son, William Lee Davidson II, provided the initial acreage for the college. The descendants of General Davidson have settled throughout the United States, but primarily in Tennessee, North Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia, and Florida.