Co. Aytch: A Sideshow of the Big Show

Sam R. Watkins

Jan 2009 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Pat Bottino

About this audiobook

Early in May 1861, twenty-one-year-old Sam R. Watkins of Columbia, Tennessee, joined the 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 the remarkable account of "Co. Aytch," its common foot soldiers, its commanders, its Yankee enemies, its victories and defeats, and its 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 memoirs, it stands as a living testament to one man's enduring humanity, courage, and wisdom in the midst of death and destruction.

About the author

Samuel R. Watkins was born on June 26, 1839, near Columbia, Tennessee. He enlisted in the First Tennessee Infantry, Company H, at the beginning of the Civil War. Upon surrender, Watkins was one out of only seven men remaining from the 120 originally enlisted in his regiment. Sam was encouraged by friends and family to write down his memories. First run as a newspaper series, his memoirs were put into book form in 1882 and almost immediately hailed as an important Civil War work.