From the book, "True Tales of the South at War: How Soldiers Fought and Families Lived, 1861-1865", collected and edited by Clarence Poe.
The man providing the account is a Confederate soldier named Bill Arp. Arp is not identified in the book at least here. He may be identified in some other place but I have not yet discovered if that is so.
On the sixth day of the Chickahominy fight, when McClellan was in full retreat, our brigade commander, General Anderson, sent me down to the river to General Lee’s headquarters for some instructions about moving the brigade. I found him in a large wall tent with many officers around him. This tent opened into another where the camp tables were set for dinner and the servant was bringing it in. There were four or five large camp tables joined together, and as I sat upon my horse waiting for a reply I saw a man, an officer, whose head and body were under the right hand table and his feet out upon the straw. His slouched hat was over the head and eyes; his sword was not unbuckled, and his boots were on and spurred. His Confederate gray clothes seemed faded and worn.
My curiosity was greatly excited, and when the adjutant handed me the instructions I ventured to point to the sleeping man and to ask, “Who is that?”
“That is Stonewall,” he said. “He has had no sleep for forty-eight hours, and fell down there exhausted. General Lee would not suffer him to be disturbed, and so our dinner will be eaten over him in silence.”
Reverently, I gazed upon him for a minute, for I felt almost like I was in the presence of some divinity….
Using the CWS&S I cannot find a "Bill" Arp lited as serving in the CS Army. In fact i only found 4 Arps from various state units serrving in the Army none in the Confederate gov. service.
The only oneof these men whose unit had a history posted is Ruffin Arp. To me he looks like a good bet to be Bill Arp.
"18th Regiment, Georgia Infantry
18th Infantry Regiment was organized during the spring of 1861 with slightly more than 750 men. Its companies were recruited in the counties of Cobb, Newton, Stephens, Jackson, and Dooly. The regiment was ordered to Virginia and first served under General Wigfall, then was brigaded under Hood, T.R.R. Cobb, Wofford, and DuBose. It fought with the Army of Northern Virginia from Seven Pines to Gettysburg, moved with Longstreet to Georgia, but was not engaged at Chickamauga. After serving at Knoxville it returned to Virginia and saw action at The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, participated in Early's operations in the Shenandoah Valley, and took part in various conflicts around Appomattox. In April, 1862, it contained 634 effectives, reported 14 killed and 128 wounded at Gaines' Mill, and had 19 killed and 114 wounded at Second Manassas. The regiment lost fifty-seven percent of the 176 engaged at Sharpsburg. There were 14 killed and 72 wounded at Chancellorsville, and of the 302 who saw action at Gettysburg, twelve percent were disabled. Many were captured at Sayler's Creek and only 1 officer and 52 were surrendered in April, 1865. Its commanding officers were Colonels Joseph Armstrong, S.Z. Ruff, and William T. Wofford; Lieutenant Colonel Francis M. Ford; and Majors W.G. Calahan, John C. Griffis, Jefferson Johnson, and Joseph A. Stewart."
Nicknames are not always directly related to given names. My dad had a friend named for the great French hero Roland. His nickname? Moe.
I'm sure that this particular "Arp" served - he mentions his commander's name - and if I find any further reference to him in the book, I will post it but I thought that the story should be told.
Any clue you can give me would be a help. I don't study a lot of battles so I have no idea who "General Anderson" may be. If we knew his first name that would be aclue, I could look up the brigade he is referring to.
Born Charles Henry Smith (June 15, 1826 – August 24, 1903) he was a Georgia politician but was more widely known by his nom de plume Bill Arp under which he wrote for nearly 40 years.
Born and raised in Lawrenceville, Georgia, Smith enrolled at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens, Georgia; however, he did not graduate. He moved to Rome, Georgia in the 1850s. During the Civil War, he served as a major on the staff of several Confederate generals, including Francis Bartow. Following the war, he returned to Rome, where he served as an Mayor, Alderman, and in the Georgia Senate.
After the war and until his death, he wrote "letters to the editor" to the Atlanta Constitution as Bill Arp which were typically in "Cracker dialect" talking about all manner of things that he couldn't say as a public figure.[1]
He also edited newspapers in Rome, Cartersville and Atlanta and published five books: Bill Arp's Letters (1870), Bill Arp's Scrap Book (1884), The Farm and Fireside (1891), History of Georgia (1895), From the Uncivil War to Date (1903).
Smith died in Cartersville, Georgia in 1903 and was buried in that same city. **************************************************
This could be him ---
C.H. Smith (First_Last) Regiment Name General and Staff Officers, Corps, Division and Brigade Staffs, Non-com. Staffs and Bands, Enlisted Men, Staff Departments, C.S.A. Side Confederate Company Soldier's Rank_In Major Soldier's Rank_Out Major Alternate Name Notes Film Number M818 roll
The book was first published in 1995 by Dover Publications, Inc., 31 East 2nd Street, Mineola, NY 11501 (here on Long Island not far from me). The stories in it were collected and edited by Clarence Poe with the help of Betsy Seymour. Perhaps if you contacted the publisher, they could give you Poe's address and he could help pin down "Bill Arp" though it sounds as if you have already pinned him down.
