Company Aytch by Samuel R. Watkins Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Company Aytch
Book Review: War is Hell, but it's also awfully bureaucratic
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: Well Told Private's View of Confederate Service
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: What it must have really been like
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
Book Review: Wonderful Book
Summary: 5 Stars
My wife and I enjoyed reading this book together. It captured the day to day grind of life during the war years that southern people love to read about. We both recommend this insightful book.Book Review: Wonderful Book
Summary: 4 Stars
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.