"Co_ Aytch," A Side Show of the Big Show

"The memoir of a Rebel participant is richer in intimate detail...than this engaging story told by Private Sam R. Watkins of the First Tennessee"-Bell Irvin WileyEarly in May, 1861, twenty-one-year-old Sam R. Watkins of Columbia, Tennessee joined the Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment. He fought in all of its major battles, from Shiloh to Nashville. Twenty years later, with a "house full of young 'rebels' clustering around my knees and bumping about my elbows," he wrote this remarkable account of "Co. Aytch"-its common foot soldiers, its commanders, its Yankee enemies, in victories and defeats, and is ultimate surrender on April 26,1865. "Co. Aytch" is the work of a natural storyteller who balances the horror of war with his irrepressible sense of humor and his sharp eye for the lighter side of battle. Among Civil War's memoirs, it stands as a living testament to one man's enduring humanity, courage, and wisdom in the midst of death and destruction.