This is the first complete history of the Jeff Davis Legion, initially designated the 2nd Mississippi Cavalry Battalion. Fighting under Jeb Stuart and Wade Hampton it later followed Hampton to Georgia and the Carolinas. Though companies from Georgia and Alabama joined the regiment, it remained officially a “Mississippi” cavalry unit. The horsemen were the only Mississippi cavalry to fight as part of Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

Among the men of the “Little Jeff” were educated elite from Natchez and Savannah and rustic farmers and country tradesmen from Kemper County, Mississippi and Sumter and Barbour Counties, Alabama. Through firsthand accounts we follow these soldiers from their early enthusiasm until camp life and sickness brought war into perspective. From their first engagement in late 1861, they continued to fight at Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Antietam, Trevilian Station, Brandy Station, Gettysburg, and were involved in countless smaller engagements. They sustained some of their greatest losses at lesser known places like Upperville, Funkstown, Stony Creek, and Bentonville.

About: Donald A. Hopkins

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