Samuel R. Watkins

Samuel Rush Watkins (June 26, 1839 – July 20, 1901) was an American writer and humorist. He fought through the entire American Civil War and saw action in many battles in the western theater. Today, he is best known for his memoir Co. Aytch, which recounts his life as a soldier in the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment.

Life In May 1861, 21-year-old Sam Watkins of Maury County, Tennessee, rushed to join the army when his state left the Union. He became part of Company H (or Co. "Aytch," as he called it), 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment, fought from Shiloh to Nashville, and acted as one of only seven men who remained in the company when it was surrendered to U.S. Major-General W. T. Sherman in North Carolina, April 1865. Watkins settled on a farm and died in 1901, aged 62, and was buried in Zion Cemetery in Maury County, Tennessee, with full military honors. The charming prose captures the experience of the common foot soldier, from the hardships of camp life to the horrors of battle, the camaraderie of a unit to the loss of a brother, the pride in one's state to the devastation of defeat. (See specific quotes from Watkins in Wikiquotes .)

The song "Kennesaw Line" by Don Oja-Dunaway tells a heart-breaking vignette of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain on the morning of June 27, 1864, from the perspective of Sam Watkins, with part of the lyrics directly paraphrasing his description from the book Co. Aytch (see the section entitled "Dead Angle").