Customer Reviews

Company Aytch

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Sam Watkins writes a novel like autobiography of his years with the Army of Tennessee. His service saw the front lines of every major battle including Shiloh, Chickamagua, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville. Amazingly, this rebel came through intact and lived to vividly record his experiences.

This book is much more impressionistic than a historic telling of the facts (which Watkins reminds the reader frequently). It lays bare the attitude of a rebel private (although one suspects Watkins is much more literate and sophistocated than many of his fellows in the ranks) who endured starvation, forced marches, punishing battles and the monotony and arbitrary nature of camp life while serving a losing cause.

Watkins does an excellent job of letting the reader into his head. He reveals well the base existence and actions of ordinary soldiers who paid for the drama of the Civil War with their youth, blood and life.

Sam Watkins produced a series of articles for his local paper about twenty years after the War Between the States, which allowed his memory to treat the conflict with a little humor, but still captures the feelings and emotions of a combat soldier in the momentous time period between 1861 and 1865. Like Elisha Hunt Rhodes from Rhode Island, Sam incredibly lasted for the whole war, one of only about 5% of his regiment who survived the conflict! His telling of the events is laid back, honest, and treated with both respect for the dead and honor for the suvivors, and with subtle humour throughout.

A hard book to put down from start to finish, regardless of which side your ancestors fought on (or even if you didn't have ancestors who fought...) Sam's memories were used in the production of Ken Burn's documentary on the Civil War, together with Rhodes', providing the common soldier's perspective of the event.

You will understand a lot more about the real conditions of the time period after reading this insightful book!

I would not really recommend Company Aytch to those who are totally unfamiliar with the history of the Civil War. Watkins does not describe in detail the events of the various battles he took part in. Major battles like Shiloh and Chickamauga are covered in a few pages. Thus a reader unfamiliar with what took place might be somewhat confused regarding the overall picture, for these memoirs are not really history, or if they are history, they are history in miniature. But it is this fact which makes them so vital and so interesting. Watkins is a fine writer and he vividly describes what it was like to be a Confederate soldier. His account is frequently very funny, often moving and at times horrific. Thus he fleshes out the events which standard history books describe in general terms. Most history books would tell of which regiment attacked which at the `Dead Angle' on Kennesaw Mountain, describe how many died on each side and fit it into the account of the Rebel retreat to Atlanta, but Watkins places the reader alongside him actually fighting this vicious battle. Watkins is also very good on the topic of the daily life of the Confederate soldier, his struggle to find adequate food and clothing and the tough discipline which could see a soldier shot by his own side for a relatively minor indiscretion. Watkins describes numerous executions through the course of the book and they are harrowing.

The quality of the writing in Company Aytch varies somewhat. At times Watkins can be repetitive, especially with his overly frequent statements that he is not writing history. His often-expressed, and fully understandable, hope to meet his fallen comrades in the hereafter tends towards a clichéd vision of heaven. But Watkins can also mock 19th century piety, as when he describes the response of the soldiers to a parson's sermon prior to the battle of Chickamauga. In this way he shows how he could move beyond the conventions of his time. It is this ability which makes Watkins such an original writer, at times even an experimental writer. Not all the experiments work, but when they do they leave a lasting and lively impression of what the Civil War must really have been like.

This edition of Company Aytch edited by M. Thomas Inge, includes a useful introduction, chronology and glossary, plus various other examples of Watkins's writing. These additional pieces are generally expansions of Company Aytch, providing further information and descriptions of events not fully described in the text.

If you have an interest in buying the book i would say you are probably already familiar with the Civil War, and therefore would have a bsic knowledge of the War. This book really is best for describing one person's experiences, instead (as Watkins acknowledges) of being a complete history. It is good because it captures the spirit of the southern soldier, adventerous and young and ready to fight.

One of the remarkable things about the book is that innocent respect that Watkins keeps for the Leaders of the Confederacy, even when he expresses that they were "incompetant" (Hood and Davis). It is something that you wouldn't find in a Memoir by a Viet-Nam era veteran; even though Watkins expresses the same resentment that a soldier of that era would express against the officer corps.

Watkins also had a genuine talent for prose that comes through. this is especially evident in the way he describes the disintegration of the Army of the Tennesee at war's end.

He emerges as a complex figure. religious and respectful of death, but able to kill- in his words- like a machine.

Weakness of the book- Watkins gets names and facts confused.

This is a first-hand account of Civil War life and battles as exprienced by a private in the C.S.A. Army, Sam Watkins. Watkins explains throughout that he is NOT a historian nor should his writings ever be considered history. But, if you want to know what went on in the minds of those young men, then this is a must read. I bought this one after browsing through a friend's book, Company Aytch by Sam Watkins, and I recommend this one as it does contain additional writings (sketches) by Watkins as well as a glossary of definitions, which I found necessary. Thomas Ingle does not edit nor rewite Watkin's writings but simply includes additional material. Also, this edition has been fixed of all previous typos.

I have to admit to being an unabashed lover of truly good personal narratives on the Civil War. They help us get away from the big picture to see what really happened and how the experiences impacted the participants. Sam Watkins' work is as good as it gets.

Sam's experience, stretching the entire span of the war, is quite simply amazing. Joining the Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment, he fights in all its major battles from Shiloh to Nashville. This is the story of combat, told by a veteran who not only fought hard but consistently. No shirker here, it is a wonder that he survived. His description of the action at Kennesaw Mountain will take your breath away.

The point of this book, as Watkins himself stated, was to provide a forum for a private in the First Tennessee Regiment, a participant from the first battle to the final surrender, to write down what he remembers and how he felt during the ordeal. The result is beautiful at times. This book, from which exerpts were taken for Ken Burns' documentary on the Civil War, provides a unique and important view of the conflict, but the reader must begin it by understanding its purpose and then may glean from it great insight.

Company Aytch may not be unique in the annals of war books, but it is certainly unusual. Plenty of soldiers have kept journals of their war days, and plenty of historians have quilted together pretty vivid accounts of various wars from such journals. I haven't read Thucydides multi-volume account of the Peloponnesian war, but based on excerpts his works come to mind, perhaps because like Company Aytch it was also written during a horrible civil war. Thucydides was a general, though, and Watkins was a foot soldier, and thus he gives us the terror, tedium, and even humor of war through the eyes of everyman. The sheer horror of "The Elephant" as the southerners called the battle, comes through even though the unblinking eye of the veteran of many campaigns has grown used to it. My uncle once told me you could get used to hanging if you did it long enough, and I suppose that happened a bit to these battle-hardened men, but still the process is fascinating, and for good or ill, we are also spared vivid descriptions of the worst of the horrors, even though at Franklin and other places he encountered them aplenty.
Because it is a ground up view, one rarely gets the big picture, and thus this book alone would not come close to giving you a War Between the States overview. It also somehow feels contemporary, as the intelligence and wit of the author caught up in the machinery and beauracracy of war between governments is something that rings a bell with us in the modern world.
As a supplement I would highly recommend it. In fact I'm not sure that any in depth study of the Civil War would be complete without it.

As an amatuer student of your Civil War (nothing to rival that conflict has ever happened here in Australian history). I found this book not only informative but also genuinely moving as an account of life as a private soldier in that terrible (and intruiging) conflict. The story follows the entire military service of Sam Watkins and deals mostly with his experiences in the Western Theatre under such commanders as Bragg, Hood and Johnston. Impressions are also given of Lee and Jackson.

Where this book is entirely different from the run of the mill historical accounts is its disregard (generally) of the broad brush approach and concentrates on the concerns of the individual, such as finding food, morale, attitudes to not only his enemy but to the other soldiers he fought alongside.

A story that can be highly amusing on one page and tragic on the next I would reccomend this book to any student of the Civil War. Ken Burns (of Civil War documentary fame) rates this book highly. So it is a shame to find that he "selectively" quotes (and misquotes) from the pages of this excellent work.

I was introduced to this masterpiece a few years back when I was a novice to re-enacting and I wanted to know more about the soldier's experience. It is a true treasure-trove of information regarding the frontline experiences of a Confederate soldier.

Watkins gently takes the reader by the hand and leads them through the horrors of day to day life in the Army of Tennessee (and even in the Army of Northern Virginia for a small portion of the book). The nightmare of their day-to-day existence is softened by Watkins' gentle humor, making the journey a wonderful read. True, there are some 'politically incorrect' passages relating to his opinions on slavery, African-Americans in general, and even regarding the Confederate hiearchy (if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Confederate, your feathers may get ruffled a bit), but remember: this is the first person account of a man who was there. There was no Civil Rights March in Waktins' day, only a Civil War.

If you are a re-enactor of the War Between the States, this book is a must for you. IF you're not, this is still one of the best (i.e.: most entertaining) books on the subject of the Army of Tennessee. Enjoy!