From Selma to Appomattox

by Lawrence R. Laboda

As a front line unit of the Army of Northern Virginia, the Jeff Davis Artillery played an active part in most major campaigns in the Eastern Theater. Also known as Bondurant's Battery, and Reese's Battery, it fought at Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Spotsylvania and other major engagements, often winning praise for its steadfastness. However, Lawrence Laboda goes beyond the Battery's combat record to show its day to day challenges. The reader lives the life of a Confederate artilleryman, sharing the unit's frustrations in selecting good officers who will stay with it, finding recruits, horses, food, and dry shelter, while enduring the reorganizations of an army always at war. The history of the Jeff Davis Artillery is also the history of the Army of Northern Virginia. From their recruitment in Selma, Alabama, to their surrender at Appomattox Court House, those Alabamians and their fellow artillerymen created a story of endurance and bravery that the reader will never forget.