Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Cumming
STATE: GA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.mupress.org/cw_contributorinfo.aspx?ContribID=3076&Name=Joseph+P.+Byrd+IV * http://www.civilwarmonitor.com/blogs/byrd-confederate-sharpshooter-major-william-e-simmons-2016
RESEARCHER NOTES:
| LC control no.: | n 2016064724 |
|---|---|
| LCCN Permalink: | https://lccn.loc.gov/n2016064724 |
| HEADING: | Byrd, Joseph P., IV |
| 000 | 00416nz a2200109n 450 |
| 001 | 10319579 |
| 005 | 20161129141206.0 |
| 008 | 161129n| azannaabn |n aaa |
| 010 | __ |a n 2016064724 |
| 040 | __ |a DLC |b eng |e rda |c DLC |
| 100 | 1_ |a Byrd, Joseph P., |c IV |
| 670 | __ |a Confederate sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons, 2016: |b t.p. (Joseph P. Byrd IV) back jacket flap (resides in Cumming, Georgia; retired from the United Parcel Service) |
PERSONAL
Born in Savannah, GA.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer. Previously, worked as a marketing researcher, college professor, and employee of the United Parcel Service.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Joseph P. Byrd is a writer based in Cumming, Georgia. Previously, he worked as a marketing researcher and spent eight years serving as a professor at a college. Byrd went on to join the United Parcel Service, from which he eventually retired.
In 2016, Byrd released his first book, Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War with the 16th Georgia Infantry and the 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters. The subject of the volume is Byrd’s great-great-uncle. The twenty-five chapters in the book are brief. It begins with information on Simmons’s upbringing in Gwinnett County, GA. His parents were wealthy and an important part of the community. Simmons went on to attend Emory College. Afterwards, he began working at the newspaper his father had founded, the Lawrenceville News. Byrd contrasts Simmons’s views on whether or not the South should remain a part of the United States. His father was on the side of the Union, while Simmons was devoted to the Confederate cause. As the Civil War began, Simmons became part of the Gwinnett Volunteers, a Georgia military outfit that eventually merged with the 16th Georgia Infantry. Simmons also served in the Army of Northern Virginia and took part in some of the most important battles of the war, including Gettysburg, Antietam, Chattanooga, Fredericksburg, Knoxville, the Seven Days Battle, and the conflict at the Spotsylvania Court House. He joined the 3rd Georgia Sharpshooter Battalion in 1963. Brigadier General W.T. Wofford was the commander of the outfit, and Simmons served as its captain.
Byrd explains how members of the battalion were trained in sharpshooting and offers information on the battalion’s actions during the war. In 1864, the battalion engaged with the Union cavalry under the command of George Armstrong Custer. Wofford’s planning of the attack was less than adequate, so the battalion did not perform well in this battle. Simmons was captured during the conflict and imprisoned at Fort Delaware. He was repeatedly asked to read an oath of loyalty to the Union after the Confederate generals, Joseph E. Johnston and Robert E. Lee surrendered. Because he refused to do so, Simmons was kept in prison. After he was finally released, he returned to Georgia. Simmons worked as an attorney and newspaper publishers. He also served in the Georgia General Assembly and on the board of trustees at Georgia University. Byrd gathered information for his book from official government documents, historical texts, and an unpublished biography of Simmons written by a relative.
A contributor to the Civil War Books and Authors website described Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons as “a great resource.” David Schieffler, writer on the Civil War Monitor website, commented: “It is clear that Byrd deeply admires Simmons’s character and achievements. While he did not aim to write a history of the military units in which his uncle served, he has largely succeeded in doing just that. In fact, it is surprising how infrequently Simmons appears in this book.” Schieffler concluded: “Confederate Sharpshooter is a well-written book that recounts the operational details of an accomplished Confederate battalion and the exploits of one of its leaders.” Journal of Southern History critic, Lisa L. Denmark, suggested that the book was “generally well written.” Denmark also stated: “The author utilizes the most common official sources, several personal memoirs, and a few of the most recent secondary works. While specialists will find little that contributes to our overall understanding of the role of sharpshooters during the American Civil War, general readers and buffs will find a lively, quickly moving, and interesting narrative.” A reviewer in ProtoView called the volume “a careful study of the life and career of Major William E. Simmons.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Journal of Southern History, May, 2017, Lisa L. Denmark, review of Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War with the 16th Georgia Infantry and 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters, p. 430.
ProtoView, January, 2017, review of Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons.
ONLINE
Civil War Books and Authors, https://cwba.blogspot.com/ (March 1, 2016), review of Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons.
Civil War Monitor, https://www.civilwarmonitor.com/ (October 26, 2016), David Schieffler, review of Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons.
Mercer University Press Website, http://www.mupress.org/ (November 9, 2017), author profile.*
Joseph P. Byrd IV
Joseph P. Byrd IV retired from the United Parcel Service following a career in marketing research and eight years as a college professor. Born in Savannah, he is a seventh-generation Georgian with fifteen direct and collateral ancestors who served in the Confederate Army, including Major William E. Simmons. Over the years, Byrd has presented numerous programs on Southern History and the Civil War. He resides in Cumming, Georgia.
QUOTED: "a careful study of the life and career of Major William E. Simmons."
Confederate Sharpshooter Major
William E. Simmons: Through the War
With the 16th Georgia Infantry and 3rd
Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters
ProtoView.
(Jan. 2017): From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Ringgold, Inc. http://www.protoview.com/protoview
Full Text: 9780881465686
Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War With the 16th Georgia Infantry and 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters
Joseph P. Byrd IV Mercer University Press 2016
292 pages
$35.00
Hardcover
E559
Byrd presents a careful study of the life and career of Major William E. Simmons, an important Confederate sharpshooter. Although the text begins with Simmons' childhood and college days, it swiftly moves on to the war and Simmons' ascension through the ranks from infantryman to major. Eventually, he became commander of his own sharpshooting battalion. Simmons' battalion's role in important battles is detailed, including in the Battles of Sharpsburg and
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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Gettysburg. After the war, Simmons involved himself with civil service. The book draws from letters, journal entries and newspaper excerpts. Numerous photographs, as well as maps of battle sites, are included. The text concludes with a roster of the Third Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters. ([umlaut] Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War With the 16th Georgia
Infantry and 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters." ProtoView, Jan. 2017. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1& id=GALE%7CA477666203&it=r&asid=2c8c918955441e5a0ebedffb83cd75bc. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A477666203
QUOTED: "generally well written."
"The author utilizes the most common official sources, several personal memoirs, and a few of the most recent secondary works. While specialists will find little that contributes to our overall understanding of the role of sharpshooters during the American Civil War, general readers and buffs will find a lively, quickly moving, and interesting narrative."
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http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MA...
Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War with the 16th Georgia Infantry and 3rd
Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters
Lisa L. Denmark
Journal of Southern History.
83.2 (May 2017): p430. From Book Review Index Plus. COPYRIGHT 2017 Southern Historical Association http://www.uga.edu/~sha
Full Text:
Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War with the 16th Georgia Infantry and 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters. By Joseph P. Byrd IV. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2016. Pp. xxviii, 292. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-88146-568-6.)
Joseph P. Byrd IV grew up listening to his father recount childhood memories about "Uncle William," a "Confederate War hero" (p. vii). Aided by a previously unpublished manuscript produced in the 1960s by a second cousin, an unreconstructed Byrd proudly recounts the Civil War experiences of his ancestor. Major William E. Simmons.
In the first two of twenty-five very short chapters, Byrd briefly relates the early life of Simmons, who was born to a prominent family in Gwinnett County, Georgia, received his education at Emory College, and edited the Lawrenceville (Georgia) News, established by his father, himself a prominent attorney, politician, slave owner, and cotton mill owner. In contrast to his Unionist- leaning father--an interesting individual deserving of greater attention--the younger Simmons took an uncompromising stance on the expansion of slavery and supported John C. Breckinridge's candidacy in the presidential election of 1860. Byrd moves hurriedly through secession and employs only one direct quotation from Simmons's newspaper, noting that secession was "the only safe and honorable course left to the South" (p. 9).
Simmons's service in the American Civil War constitutes the bulk of this conventional military biography. In the spring of 1861 Simmons was elected a lieutenant in the Gwinnett Volunteers, which became part of the Sixteenth Georgia Infantry. As part of the Army of Northern Virginia, Simmons's regiment saw action in most of the war's major engagements, including the Seven Days, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chattanooga, Knoxville, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor,
In 1863 Simmons received promotion to captain of the newly formed Third Georgia Sharpshooter Battalion, commanded by a fellow Georgian, Brigadier General W. T. Wofford, Byrd provides some interesting details about sharpshooter training exercises, particularly range
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finding; however, beyond noting that the Third Battalion was "in the thick of the action," Simmons's battlefield activities remain rather amorphous (p. 143). During Wofford's poorly planned attack on George Armstrong Custer's Union cavalry at Front Royal in 1864, Simmons, recently promoted to major, was captured and sent to Fort Delaware, He remained in prison until well after April 1865 for refusing to take the oath of loyalty after the surrenders of Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston.
The final four chapters recount Simmons's postwar experience. Byrd relates that "the Major" put the war behind him and looked to the future (p. 178). That future included a stint in the Georgia General Assembly during the 1870s, a career as a successful attorney, involvement in the newspaper business, an appointment to the Georgia University Board of Trustees, and familial responsibilities as a generous and devoted husband and uncle.
Byrd makes use of the Official Records in detailing the movements and activities of the Sixteenth Georgia Infantry and the Third Sharpshooter Battalion and the actions of the generals who served under James Longstreet. As a member of Longstreet's regiment, Simmons indeed may have been present, but his personal experiences and individual voice are largely lost in the minutiae of troop movements and battle descriptions. In describing the soldier's perspective of life in the regiment. Byrd provides numerous block quotations derived from other personal accounts. With few exceptions, such as Simmons's compassion toward injured enemy soldiers and his post-capture meeting with Custer, the reader never really gets a sense of Simmons's personal experience.
Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War with the 16th Georgia Infantry and 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters is generally well written. The author utilizes the most common official sources, several personal memoirs, and a few of the most recent secondary works. While specialists will find little that contributes to our overall understanding of the role of sharpshooters during the American Civil War, general readers and buffs will find a lively, quickly moving, and interesting narrative.
Lisa L. Denmark
Georgia Southern University Denmark, Lisa L.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Denmark, Lisa L. "Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War with
the 16th Georgia Infantry and 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters." Journal of Southern History, vol. 83, no. 2, 2017, p. 430+. PowerSearch, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS& sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA495476235&it=r& asid=47ab991743e73ddea635e8bd38c08df0. Accessed 22 Oct. 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495476235
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QUOTED: "It is clear that Byrd deeply admires Simmons’s character and achievements. While he did not aim to write a history of the military units in which his uncle served, he has largely succeeded in doing just that. In fact, it is surprising how infrequently Simmons appears in this book."
"Confederate Sharpshooter is a well-written book that recounts the operational details of an accomplished Confederate battalion and the exploits of one of its leaders."
BYRD: Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons (2016)
Posted 10/26/2016 Reviewed By David Schieffler
Confederate Sharpshooter: Major William E. Simmons: Through the War with the 16th Georgia Infantry and the 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters by Joseph P. Byrd, IV. Mercer University Press, 2016. Cloth, ISBN: 978-0-88146-568-6. $35.00.
Confederate Sharpshooter is a military biography of Major William E. Simmons, a rebel infantryman and sharpshooter who served in Gen. Lafayette McLaws’s (later Joseph B. Kershaw’s) division in the Army of Northern Virginia. Joseph P. Byrd, IV, an independent historian and Simmons’s great-great nephew, used the major’s personal diary, an unpublished biography (written in the 1960s by Simmons’s great nephew and law partner), and a number of published and archival sources to tell his ancestor’s story. It is clear that Byrd deeply admires Simmons’s character and achievements. While he did not aim to write a history of the military units in which his uncle served, he has largely succeeded in doing just that. In fact, it is surprising how infrequently Simmons appears in this book, as most of its quotations come from the major’s comrades, and most of its stories are about his regiment and battalion’s actions, not Maj. Simmons.
Simmons’s early life was similar to other southern elites who came of age in the antebellum era. The son of a prominent lawyer in Lawrenceville, Georgia (northeast of Atlanta), he graduated from Emory College in 1858 and, at age eighteen, moved back home to edit and publish a newspaper. Although his father supported Stephen A. Douglas in the 1860 presidential election and eventually became a reluctant secessionist, Will (and his newspaper) enthusiastically endorsed John C. Breckenridge and became an early advocate for separation. In May 1861, Simmons enlisted in the Gwinnett Volunteers, a company that eventually mustered into the 16th Georgia Infantry Regiment. As an infantry lieutenant, Simmons fought at Malvern Hill, Crampton’s Gap (where he coolly led his company in a narrow escape), Antietam, and Fredericksburg.
In spring 1863, Simmons was chosen to serve in the newly created 3rd Georgia Sharpshooters Battalion. Ability, not seniority, led to membership in this elite group. Although the sharpshooters were skilled marksmen, long-range sniping was not their primary function. Rather, they were a light infantry battalion that conducted scouts, guarded pickets, and protected the army’s front and rear. As a sign of their distinction, these “trained skirmishers” were exempted from performing routine camp duties (80). Most historians will find Byrd’s description of Confederate sharpshooter battalions to be the most useful part of this book.
As a freshly minted sharpshooter, Simmons participated in the bloody engagements at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, the siege of Chattanooga, and the failed assault on Fort Sanders (Knoxville) in November 1863. The following February, he convinced his fellow sharpshooters to reenlist for the remainder of the war and, two months later, he was promoted to the rank of major, though he did not learn of his advancement until after the protracted fighting of the 1864 Overland Campaign. When the 3rd Georgia’s ranking officer was wounded at Petersburg in July 1864, Simmons became the battalion’s acting commander. The following month, he led his troops to the Shenandoah Valley, where he was ultimately captured at the Battle of Guard Hill. Simmons was interred at Fort Delaware, the so-called “Andersonville of the North,” for the remainder of the war. While there, he proudly refused to take the oath of allegiance to the United States in exchange for his freedom because he would not, as the oath read, have done so “freely and voluntarily.” When Union authorities finally agreed to strike that clause in July 1865, Simmons and eighty-one other rebel officers swore loyalty and were released.
The last three chapters of Confederate Sharpshooter describe Simmons’s distinguished postwar career. Affectionately known as “the Major” for the rest of his life, Simmons became a successful attorney, Georgia state legislator, and longtime trustee at both the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech. Elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1870, he worked vigorously to rollback Republican Reconstruction in the state. A lifelong Democrat, Simmons was also a friend, admirer, and political opponent of the Populist Tom Watson.
Confederate Sharpshooter is a well-written book that recounts the operational details of an accomplished Confederate battalion and the exploits of one of its leaders. Byrd’s primary goal was to tell the story of a “truly remarkable man, his many accomplishments, and the people, places, and events that touched his life,” and he has largely succeeded in doing so (x). Unfortunately, Byrd all too frequently adopts the language and tone of his nineteenth-century subject: Simmons fought in the “War Between the States,” served with twenty-seven “Negro legislators” in the Georgia House (197), and “endured the pervasive humiliation of Reconstruction” (177). Moreover, as a state representative, he labored “to clean up the mess left by the Reconstruction government,” which included the “monumental task of reorganizing the government and unraveling all of the financial chicanery and plundering of the [Republican Gov. Rufus] Bullock administration” (182). Byrd’s take on his ancestor’s activities is unequivocally laudatory, but in most cases this seems justified. Simmons, though certainly a man of his time and place, accomplished much and was beloved by his peers.
David Schieffler is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at the University of Arkansas.
QUOTED: "a great resource."
Booknotes: Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons
New Arrival:
• Confederate Sharpshooter Major William E. Simmons: Through the War with the 16th Georgia Infantry and 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters by Joseph P. Byrd IV (Mercer Univ Pr, 2016).
There's been a recent spike in interest in the mid to late war development of specialized sharpshooter battalions within the Army of Northern Virginia. Byrd's book is a detailed military biography of Georgia's Major William E. Simmons. "Three years after graduating from Emory College, Simmons joined the first company in his home county and received his commission. He was later promoted to Captain in the elite 3rd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters of Wofford's Brigade. In 1864, he became acting commander of the brigade's sharpshooter battalion. The book traces his family heritage and his footsteps from childhood to Emory College, through many challenging war encounters, his capture and imprisonment at Fort Delaware, and a lifetime of service to his state and community that lasted until the 1930s."
Chapters dealing with Simmons's early life and post-war activities are present but the bulk of the book focuses on the major's Civil War experiences during the Peninsula Campaign, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Knoxville, and the 1864 fighting in Virginia before his capture in the Shenandoah. Appendices contain Simmons documents (including his prison journal), an obituary, statistical information and a Third Battalion roster. Looks like a great resource.