The Norfolk Blues were in the Civil War from its start, fighting in the land battles for control of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. Later, they served with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, fighting at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, until they finally came to Appomattox Courthouse.

This unusual history of volunteer artillery militiamen from their company's founding in 1829 to service in today's National Guard fills a gap in the still unfolding story of America's largest North American war.

This book gives the history of the volunteer artillery unit both in battle and in camp. The editor has enhanced this contemporaneous story with background material that sets the Blues' wartime bravery in the context of their militia service before and after the war and, through the rosters, shows the reader the human side of the 206 men who fought so bravely.