Join Us For This Tour From: September 1 to September 14
Book Details:
Book Title: Rebel Correspondent by Steve Procko
Category: Adult Non-Fiction 18+, 356 pages
Genre: Biography & Autobiography, Military and Nonfiction, History,
United States, Civil War Period
Publisher: Steve Procko Productions, LLC
Release date: September 2021
Tour dates: September 1 to September 14
Content Rating: PG
Book Description:
Rebel Correspondent is the true story of a young man who joined the
Confederate Army days after his eighteenth birthday and served bravely until
the war ended. Wounded twice, he emerged a changed person. But he wasn't
just a returning veteran; he was also a writer.
At the beginning
of the twentieth century, Arba F. Shaw was a fifty-seven-year-old farmer. On
a chilly December day in 1901, he put pen to paper to write his memories of
being a Rebel Private in the 4th Georgia Cavalry (Avery), C.S.A. He
completed writing his account in February 1902. His local newspaper, the
Walker County Messenger, in Lafayette, Georgia, published his account in
more than fifty articles from 1901 to 1903. Then it was all but forgotten.
Until Now. Rebel Correspondent presents Arba F. Shaw's account
word-for-word, as first published in the Walker County Messenger almost 120
years ago. Procko annotates Shaw's account with in-depth research, verifying
it and uncovering the back story of his life and the lives of his Rebel
comrades. Procko's research offers a historical perspective on the many
places and events Shaw so richly described.
By: Steve
Procko; Author, Rebel Correspondent - RebelCorrespondent.com
My book Rebel Correspondent is the true story about a young man
name Arba Shaw who joined the Confederate army. Arba was a member of Company F
of the 4th Georgia Cavalry. More than 35 years after the war was over, he wrote
about his experiences as a young cavalry private. Then his account was
forgotten. Until now.
What is interesting about Arba’s stories is just how many
eyewitness accounts turned out to be the only record of what had actually
happened. He was witness at the battles and skirmishes that killed and wounded
many of his brothers-in-arms as well as his enemies. When I began looking for
records on those men today, I discovered that many of these soldiers’
descendants had no idea what happened to them. In the Civil War, many soldiers
were buried where they fell. Sometimes they were just listed as missing.
Sometimes they were seriously wounded and left to fend on their own.
One private in Arba’s Company F was John B. Biggerstaff, who was
seriously wounded in the forehead during battle at Sweetwater, Tennessee in
August 1864. Biggerstaff was left behind when the regiment was ordered to fall
back. Kneeling next to him, Private Ben Chastain, another Company F soldier
whispered in his ear, “John,
I’m downtown for a little while”. They left Biggerstaff behind at a
cabin in the care of two elderly ladies. His gruesome wound was considered a
mortal injury, and he was not expected to survive.
Five years later in October 1869, a stranger on horseback arrived
at Chastain’s small farm south of LaFayette, Georgia. Ben walked up to the
stranger as he dismounted from his horse. “You’ve been gone downtown a long
time,” said the man
to a shocked Ben Chastain. It was John Biggerstaff, who then spent the evening telling the tale of how
he had survived fate.
Meet the Author:
Steve Procko never thought of himself as a Civil War history buff, let
alone a biographer. He does love history, however, particularly learning
about the small, everyday events in the lives of little-known people and the
small towns they lived in.
A documentarian and cinematographer, Steve was sleuthing stories for a
documentary series he has developed, “There’s History Around Every Bend,”
currently available on YouTube, when he came across the writings of Private
Arba F. Shaw.
The down-to-earth accounts of the everyday life of a lowly private
just struggling to survive one of the greatest events in American history
fascinated Steve. As he read the series of articles, mostly unread since
they were published in a small, north Georgia newspaper in 1901-1903, he
began to realize that this was a remarkable cache of history.
A native of Florida, Steve, with his Lauren and their dog Rigby,
splits his time between a mountain log cabin nestled next to Stanley Creek
near the town of Blue Ridge, Georgia, and a home in Ocala, Florida.
He opened a commercial film production company with a partner in 1984.
In 2003 the company became Steve Procko Productions (SPP). His
Emmy-award-winning financial literacy program Talkin' Money Minutes is
available on over 100 Public Television stations nationwide. SPP has also
won three additional Emmys over fifty Addy Awards, Telly Awards, and two
Promax awards.
When he’s not behind a video camera or researching the archives for
his next documentary or book, Steve explores remote areas throughout the
United States and Canada as a fine art photographer. He has had work
displayed at The Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, The Museum
of Art in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, as well as solo and group exhibitions
throughout the United States.
Steve’s second book, Captured Liberty, another Civil War story about
nine POW Union officers and their amazing escape will be published in 2022.
He also plans to develop documentaries about The Rebel Correspondent and
Captured Liberty.
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2 Comments
Sounds very interesting
ReplyDeletemy dad was a bit of a civil war history buff too!
ReplyDeletePlease try not to spam posts with the same comments over and over again. Authors like seeing thoughtful comments about their books, not the same old, "I like the cover" or "sounds good" comments. While that is nice, putting some real thought and effort in is appreciated. Thank you.