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43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Personal Memoirs Ever Written, June 2, 1998
By A Customer
Sam Watkins did not intend to write a detailed history of the war, but rather to write of his personal experiences as a private soldier. And what experiences he had! As you read this book you wonder how he ever came out of the war alive - most of his friends and comrades did not. This is one of the most humorous, and one of the saddest, books I have ever read: the political humorist Will Rogers would be jealous. At times Watkins' stories had me convulsing with laughter, at other times near to tears. He tells of how, caught behind enemy lines, he figured out a way to get the Federal password/countersign: simply demand it of a Federal officer (they were stupider than the privates). Once he had that, he could roam around at will behind Federal lines for the rest of that day. He tells of how he and a friend were sitting on a log sharing a meal from the same plate when a someone yelled for him to "look out". In turning his head he was just missed by a solid shot. His friend, not so lucky, had all but his face swept away by the cannon ball - his brains feel into the plate from which they had been eating. Watkins also tells of the demise of a friend's pet rooster named "Fed" and the "election speeches" of two friends for the rank of corporal. Tears of laughter will run down your face as you read these............This is a wonderful book by a heroic man. I recommend it without reservation.
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31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
War Stories by the Hearth, December 1, 2004
Twenty years after participating in the war that reshaped American history forever, Sam Watkins sat down to write his memoirs, without benefit of journal or notes. He commenced his tale with a short, folksy parable of the cause of the war, as Southerners saw it. He then quickly launched into telling the tale as he viewed it - not from the heights of a general officer, but from the mud and dust covered ground-eye view of a common "webfoot" infantry soldier. In doing so, he created what is perhaps the best, most readable, and most compelling account of a Civil War infantry man that has ever seen print. Watkins told his tale in an easy, conversational style. The book is not written as a single narrative, but as a collection of tales and memories, just as he might have told them to friends and family around his hearth. His antidotal style put side by side humorous tales and the horrors of war that he observed, showing how casual a thing gruesome death became to a soldier. He wrote with great feeling, telling the reader when recalling a particular incident left him overwhelmed with emotion still after twenty years, and constantly referencing his religious faith that he would someday see all of his fallen comrades again in a better world. He hid nothing of himself, and that candid emotion sets his book apart, and gives it its greatness. This book is not a history, per say. Watkins constantly reminded his readers of this. It is a collection of impressions of what it was like to be one of the little men doing the shooting and killing - the men who history mostly overlooks. "Co Aytch" fills in the yawning gaps of how war is really fought and experienced that you will never find in any general's memoirs. This book is essential for a full understanding of the Civil War, and it is a pleasure and a joy to read. I highly recommend it. Theo Logos
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28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A deserved classic, February 12, 2001
This is the perfect civil war book and will satisfy the greenest novice or the most accomplished historian. Watkins writes brilliantly, naturally and in colloquial tones that have scarcely aged in the 130 years since he penned this memoir. It's exactly as if this marvelously likeable and funny soldier is sitting in your rocking chair, personally spinning yarns about his civil war experiences. It's that immediate and that real, as if you are accompanying him on every train, bivouac or battlefield. Watkins becomes part of you as you read on, like a treasured friend or talisman. It doesn't matter what side of the conflict you're on, whether you're a confirmed Yankee or passionate Rebel, it's simply impossible not to adore Watkins and his deft touches with the pen. He describes the terror of going into battle, the strange exhilaration of the battles aftermath and the realization you are still alive. His best moments are describing a visit to a field hospital where he sees his best friends intestines opened up in a gaping wound, with only minutes to live. His pathos and deep sentiment are prevelent throughout the book. Buy this book *now,* don't wait another moment. It's a book you will read and re-read throughout life, a deserved and enduring classic. Whether you care little or nothing about the American civil war, it matters little. This is a little masterpiece, pure and simple.
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