Arthur Benjamin Simms

Son of a wealthy lawyer (d. 1856), he enlisted at age 19 at Covington in Newton County, GA as 4th Sergeant of Company A, Cobb's Legion Infantry on 1 August 1861. He was promoted to First Sergeant in 1862.

He was captured in action at Crampton's Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862.

He was sent from Fort Delaware to Aikens' Landing, VA on 2 October and officially exchanged there as of 10 November 1862. He was admitted to a Richmond, VA hospital on 9 October 1862, with no later record with the Legion.

He probably enlisted as a Private in Company E of the 53rd Georgia Infantry on 20 March 1864, and was commissioned First Lieutenant and Aide de Camp to his brother Brigadier General James Simms, probably in January 1865. He was captured at Sailor's Creek, VA on 6 April 1865 and was a prisoner at Johnson's Island, OH to 20 June, when he took an oath of allegiance to the United States and was released.

In 1870 he was a lawyer living in George Merriwether's hotel in Covington, GA.

His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1850 & 1870.

He married Sallie Shelton Terrell Jackson (1852-1942) in January 1878 and they had 3 children.

Brother Richard, also in Company A, was killed at Crampton's Gap. His other brother James Phillip Simms (1837-1887) served in the 53rd Georgia Infantry and was Brigadier General by the end of the war.

A number of his wartime letters home are in the Atlanta History Center in the Simms Family Letters collection [finding aid].

1842; Newton County, GA

06/06/1887; Covington, GA; burial in Southview Cemetery, Covington, GA