Bio: Capt. Joseph A. Redding; Yazoo City, MS., then Caddo Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller Date: 1999-2000 ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Capt. Joseph A. Redding. One of the most popular ex-service men at Shreveport is Capt. Redding, who has divided some of his time from business and other pursuits with the military establishment of the state and the nation for the past ten years or more. He rose to the rank of captain in the National Army during the World war, and is now regimental adjutant with the rank of captain in the Louisiana National Guard. Captain Redding was born at Yazoo City, Mississippi, in 1894. and his home has been in Shreveport since 1910, in which year his parents, J. W. and Mary (Epperson) Redding, moved to Northwest Louisiana. Joseph A. Redding was then a youth of sixteen. His earlier education was acquired during three years spent at the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. A somewhat detailed record of his military career is proper material for this history. April 7, 1912, he enlisted in Company L of the First Louisiana Infantry, serving four years in the ranks from private to sergeant. April 8, 1916, he was appointed second lieutenant, assigned to Company L., First Louisiana Infantry, and was on duty on the Mexican border during that year. February. 1917, he was appointed first lieutenant, and on April 9, left Shreveport with Company L, going to Camp Nichols, where his regiment was mustered into the National Army. In May, 1917, he was appointed, adjutant, First Battalion, First Louisiana infantry, and in September of the same year was made first lieutenant commanding headquarters company of the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth infantry. In December he was appointed captain and regimental adjutant of the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Infantry, and in August, 1918, went to France, seeing service overseas until January 1, 1919. He received his discharge from the federal service with the rank of captain of infantry January 29, 1919. Captain Redding continued to maintain an active interest in his comrades of the war, and finally, in June, 1922, was drawn back again to active service. at which time he was appointed captain in the One Hundred and Fifty-sixth Infantry in the Louisiana National Guard, commanding Company H. In May, 1923, he was advanced to the larger responsibilities of regimental adjutant, still with the rank of captain. Captain Redding for several years has been a wholesale and retail dealer in automobile tires handling the Diamond tires. He conducts the Redding Tire Service in Shreveport, and has made of it a very successful and prosperous concern. He married Miss Mary Byrd, of Shreveport. Her father is a distinguished educator, Prof. Clifton E. Byrd, for many years superintendent of education in Caddo Parish, and secretary-treasurer of the Parish School Board. Mrs. Redding is a highly educated woman of Shreveport, having attended Newcomb College at New Orleans, the Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge and Randolph Macon College at Lynchburg, Virginia. Captain and Mrs. Redding have two daughters, Mary Byrd and Martha Elizabeth. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 201, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.