Private Leander E. Davis of the 1st New York Light Artillery saw much of the war, serving alongside his comrades in Battery M in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, battles with the Army of the Potomac, and with Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's forces in the campaigns from Atlanta to the Carolinas. A regular letter writer, he captured life own the front lines at Kennesaw Mountain in late June 1864.