Rebel Correspondent by Steve Procko

Spotlight Book Tour

Author Interview and Giveaway

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.

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Meet the Author and Interview

Interview

Who was the Rebel Correspondent?

Arba F. Shaw was the Rebel Correspondent. Arba was a farmer who grew up in the shadow of Lookout mountain in Northwestern, Georgia. When the Civil War started he was too young, just seventeen-years-old, as he watched all his cousins enlist in the Rebel army. He had to wait until September 1862, seven days after his eighteenth birthday to enlist. He served until the war’s end and was wounded twice, once seriously.

He then came home and returned to farming his 160 acres. But he was also a writer. He would become a local correspondent for the Walker County Messenger in 1880 and write for them until his death in 1909. He wrote his account of his experiences in the war between December 1901 to February 1902. The newspaper serialized his account into 55 articles, and then it was lost to time. Until now.

Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

My career has been as a cinematographer. I produce a documentary series on YouTube called “There’s History Around Every Bend”. It’s really quite true, every where you turn, there is history to be discovered. Since I am writing about history, I am always looking at stories that need to be dug into a little further. Sometimes they pan out and lead to something intriguing. So part of it for me is enjoying the detective work in search of a story that resonates and inspires. I love doing the research. Rebel Correspondent is definitely about history being found around every bend.

What particular things did you do in researching this book?

First I had to organize it and look at each name and place mentioned to determine what exactly I was researching. I built a very detailed family tree for Arba F. Shaw because he had lots of relatives mentioned in his account, so it was important to have that reference at my fingertips as I wrote.

To me this is where a computer is so valuable. I took the entire original 40,000 words written by Shaw and in that one document attached  the research to each name or place as I went. I researched the story for about three months before I began writing it and that document was so important to keeping track of everything.

Were there any surprises in researching the book?

There are several accounts where Arba was witness to the death of a soldier in battle and in looking at the family tree of that soldier today, his descendants had no idea what happened to him.

Arba was eyewitness to the his commanding officer Colonel Isaac W. Avery being wounded. Avery later became one of the first editors of The Constitution, the precursor to the Atlanta Constitution. There were no eyewitness accounts to this event that I could find except Arbas. In fact, both men were wounded within minutes of each other.

There is a story of one AWOL soldier, Captain Reuben Keith of Company A fromPick A Good Book Arba’s own regiment. In August 1864, Arba was part of a group of soldiers involved in capturing Captain Keith, who was killed in the process. This is another instance where Keith’s family didn’t really know what happened to him, but Arba’s account gives the details of what exactly occurred. Then in a strange coincidence, in the middle of the 20th century, one of Arba’s great-granddaughters would marry into that same family.

Why do you like to write in this genre?

I am drawn to history for some reason. I am not saying I won’t attempt to write fiction in the future. But it would likely be a historical fiction of some sort. However, my next book is another Civil War true story, which I want to write in a cinematic style. I am definitely influenced by Erik Larson’s cinematic-style of writing. I read Devil in the White City when it came out in 2003 and now look forward to everything he puts out. His books can be described as historical non-fiction, based on real characters and events, presented in a cinematic style.

In his last book The Splendid and the Vile he states in the “Note to Readers” at the start of the book, “Although at times it may appear to be otherwise, this is a work of nonfiction. Anything between quotation marks comes from some sort of historical document, be it a diary, letter, memoir; any reference to a gesture, gaze, or smile, or any other facial reaction, comes from an account by one who witnessed it”.

Talk about deep research!

Thanks you so much for sharing with us, Steve!

Enter the Giveaway:

THE REBEL CORRESPONDENT Book Tour Giveaway