Samuel watkins model
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A Private in Company H, First Tennessee Infantry, Sam Watkins is today one of the most well-known common soldiers in Civil War history.Despite his low rank, Watkins has found immortality through his 1882 memoir Company Aytch.
Born in Maury County, Tennessee, south of Nashville in 1840, Watkins rushed to enlist in the army when Tennessee left the union in 1861.His unit had served in the mountains of Western Virginia during the brutal winter of 1861-62, and received its baptism of fire at Shiloh that April.Two of the First's sternest tests had come in late 1862 at Perryville, Kentucky in October and at Murfreesboro, Tennessee – only miles from Sam's home – on the last day of the year.Watkins and the First Tennessee fought on both days at Chickamauga, and his account of the chaos in the woods along Brotherton Road on September 19th stands as one of the best accounts of the battle by any participant.
The First Tennessee continued its hard service in the Army of Tennessee through the end of the war, and Watkins recorded his and his comrade's wartime experience for posterity two dec
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Samuel R. Watkins
American writer and humorist (1839–1901)
Samuel R. Watkins | |
|---|---|
Watkins in uniform, c. 1861 | |
| Born | Samuel Rush Watkins (1839-06-26)June 26, 1839 Mount Pleasant, Tennessee |
| Died | July 20, 1901(1901-07-20) (aged 62) Maury County, Tennessee |
| Resting place | Zion Cemetery, Maury County, Tennessee, U.S. 35°35′55.2″N87°08′42.0″W / 35.598667°N 87.145000°W / 35.598667; -87.145000 |
| Pen name | Sam. R. Watkins |
| Occupation | |
| Alma mater | Jackson College |
| Period | 1881–1900 |
| Years active | 1881–1882 |
| Notable work | Co. Aytch |
| Spouse | Virginia Mayes Watkins (m. ) |
| Allegiance | Confederate States |
| Service / branch | Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 |
| Rank | Corporal |
| Unit | Company H, 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment |
| Battles / wars | American Civil War |
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.
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Life of a Confederate Soldier In the Words of Sam Watkins |
Sam R. Watkins, born on June 26, 1839 near Columbia, Tennessee, attended Jackson College at Columbia prior to his enlistment as a private in the First Tennessee Infantry, Company H in the spring of 1861. Watkins served throughout the duration of the war, and was promoted to fourth corporal for picking up a Union flag from the battlefield during the Battle of Atlanta, July 22, 1864. In 1881, 20 years after the war began, Watkins wrote his memoirs of the war, recounting his engaging saga in "Co. Aytch": A Side Show of the Big Show. Watkins died on July 20, 1901.
Selected excerpts from his engaging narrative on the war provide a glimpse into the life of the common Confederate soldier.
Thoughts on the Common Soldier
Reminiscences of Camp Cheatham, 1861:
A private soldier is but an automaton, a machine that works by the command of a good, bad, or indifferent engineer, and is presumed to know nothing of all these great events. His business is to load and shoot, stand picket, videt, etc
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