Thursday, the Gainesville Volunteers, Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 373, will welcome Mississippi author Al Arnold, whose great-great grandfather served two Confederate generals during the Civil War.
Arnold’s book, “Robert E. Lee’s Orderly: A Modern Black Man’s Confederate Journey,” tells the story of Turner Hall Jr., a black Confederate who served as a body servant for General Robert E. Lee and General Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Civil War, Arnold said.
“I’m the family historian for the Arnold and Elliott families reunion in Monroe County, Mississippi and I wanted to capture his story in writing,” Arnold said. “I was inspired by a family photograph depicting my great-great grandfather wearing his Civil War medals.”
For his book, Arnold researched newspaper articles from the Hugo Daily Newspaper and The Daily Oklahoman, which he found at the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Hall was born a slave in North Carolina and came to Okolona, Mississippi as a child, Arnold said. He was owned by Forrest, who is also famous for being the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. He was also a Calvary general and took about 45 slaves to war with him, Arnold said.
During the war, Hall was a body servant and took care of Lee’s horse Traveller, Arnold said.
“History depicts Forrest as one who was loyal to his slaves and consequently, they were loyal to him,” Arnold said. “There’s a chapter dedicated to him in my book. He didn’t stay in the KKK once he discovered it was not like he thought it would be. Another lesser-known fact about Forrest is that he was an advocate for civil rights for black Americans. Hall had great admiration for him.”
In fact, 72 years after the Civil War, at 98-years-old, in an interview Hall called a gift of Confederate money from Forrest his most prized possession, Arnold said.
After the war, Hall, then a free man, returned to Okolona and went to work for the Walton family. After the patriarch died, his widowed wife married into the Trice family, Arnold said. Hall had already served five generations of Waltons and wanted to continue to do so, so he moved to Oklahoma with the Trice family in 1906.
Hall mostly worked as a butler, but was a carpenter by trade and helped build their house, Arnold said. In 1938, Hall attended the last Civil War reunion as a black Confederate and in 1940, he was interviewed by “We the People,” a national radio show in New York.
Hall lived to be 104-years-old and people said, “he had the likeness of a 70-year-old,” Arnold said.
“I want readers to understand that the Civil War and being black was a complex issue,” Arnold said. “More importantly, blacks had a role in both sides of the war. The Civil War history is also black history and we should not shy away but embrace it.”
The cover of Arnold’s book is designed by Poplarville resident Diana Thornton, he said.
Adj. Jim Huffman of the Gainesville Volunteers, Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 373, said the group is thrilled to host Arnold. The group has members from Pearl River and Hancock counties and St. Tammany Parish, and is one of 50 such groups in Mississippi.
According to www.mississippiscv.org, the purpose of the non-profit is to “encourage the preservation of history, perpetuate the hallowed memories of brave men, to assist in the observance of Memorial Day, to aid and support all members, widows and orphans and to perpetuate the record of the services of every Southern soldier.
“He has a unique perspective on Confederate and Southern history,” Huffman said. “He took the time to study family history and leaned that our histories and people are intertwined.”
Arnold will be speaking at the Senior Center of South Pearl River County at 7 p.m., located at 45 El Patch Parkway, Picayune. The public is invited and admission is free.
Learn more about the Gainesville Volunteers, Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp visit www.mississippiscv.org, www.gainesville-vols.org and through Facebook at Gainesville Volunteers, SCV Camp 373.
Arnold’s book is available for purchase in paperback format at www.orderlyforlee.com and eBook format through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.