The Quintessential Civil War Memoir of the Confederate Side

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	• Co. Aytch : A SIDE OF THE BIG SHOW Paul Watkins (INTRO BY ROY P. BASLER) COLLIER, 1962 average customer review:based on 1 review view larger image
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The Quintessential Civil War Memoir of the Confederate Side

"Co. Aytch: A Side Show of the Big Show" by Sam R. Watkins is perhaps the quintessential Civil War memoir certainly of the Confederate side by the enlisted combat soldier. His memoir began as a serialization in his local newspaper some 20 years after the war and he subsequently published the collection as a book describing his duty with the First Tennessee Regiment covering every "battle, skirmish and march" it made. Keeping in mind the caveat that letters, diaries, personal memoirs and recollections must be used with great care, especially if written many years after events discussed due to "caprices of recollection, particularly its tendency to minimize weaknesses and to magnify virtues" ("The Life of Johnny Reb " 423). Because he wrote it for a newspaper audience he was likely influenced to embellish or make more entertaining some of his exploits.

Roy P. Basler's uncritical, laudatory introduction gives a good summary of the book but supplies little evaluation other than noting Watkins's "minor inaccuracies." It appears that Basler even misinterprets Watkins sarcastic description of "the little unpleasant misconception of there being such a thing as a north and a south" (19). Watkins frequently admits that he is not writing a history but writing "entirely from memory" (20) 20 years after and that he is able to write "only of what I saw" (177) and "remember...now" (241).

The difficulty for me was trying to sort out fact from fiction, identify hyperbole and understatement, to interpret irony and sarcasm. Repetitions due to the book's collection of the newspaper serialization became monotonous and distracting; perhaps a serious editing and fact checking would have helped me better appreciate the book. Notes such as Dr. James I. Robertson, Jr., supplied for Casler's "Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade" would have been very helpful to add to the very few footnotes in the book. And unlike John H. Worsham in "One of Jackson's Foot Cavalry," Watkins relies less directly or openly on the Official Records, others' memoirs, regimental histories, and second or third hand reports of what he describes, but Worsham's goal seems to be to write a more authoritative history of his regiment and its parent organizations.

Given all these caveats about Watkins momoirs, many of which would pertain to any memoir written with or without notes many years after the event, there is much positive to say about Watkins' book. Its first person freshness and humor provide not only entertainment, but exciting first hand discussion of the daily life of an average combat trooper. Watkins begins his serial story by describing early enthusiasm and patriotic fervor which rapidly changed to horror after the first serious combat. He shows that one of his primary reasons for joining was his belief in secession: "I am as firm in my convictions today of the right of secession as I was in 1861" (21) and then he goes on to list some of the differences between the North and South including agricultural versus manufacturing, and Puritan versus Cavalier. He admits that the South lost but does not admit that secession and its related ideas was wrong and believes along with other Lost Cause adherents that its cause was just and correct and only lost due to the material superiority of the North. Loyalty to his state was a prime force in his motivation to fight. In addition, Watkins' love for his Jennie back home clearly provided motivation and support. That Watkins had someone so dear whom he married after the war was a critical factor in his survival.

He has the usual enlisted man's disdain for officers so makes clear that he is telling "of the fellows who did the shooting and killing, the fortifying and ditching" from his point of view as a "humble private in the rear rank" (20) and who, if slain, "is soon forgotten" (22). One exceptional officer he did describe was his supposed encounter with General Robert E. Lee whom he "fell in love with" and with whom he "felt like going home" (27). One wonders if his description is genuine but the context of the paragraph makes it appear so. His initial portrayal of General Thomas (Tom Fool) Jackson is less laudatory but soon he becomes more of an aficionado. His description of his first day at Shiloh, seeing Albert S. Johnston dying, and the looting of Union camps, is worthwhile but his description of his retreat to Corinth on a mule is likely apocryphal. He describes his and all soldiers hatred of General Braxton Bragg as the "great autocrat" whom "[n]ot a single soldier in the whole army loved or respected" (49).

He also thought little of the new draft law and its conscripts but reserved some venom for staff officers although he appreciated his brief stint when he was detailed as a courier. His subsequent tales of battles and his adventures made me believe that he also fought for his comrades given his eloquent and sympathetic details of their trials and acts of bravery: "Our men died the death of heroes...I shed a tear over their memory. They gave their all to their country" (110). He even finds some officers worthy of praise. His several descriptions of executions of deserters and spies shows the effect that they had on him while his tales of rare full meals and eating (or almost eating) mussels, sorghum and rats gives evidence of the poor state of Confederate logistics. Interestingly, he said that he was unable to steal from dead Yankees despite his obvious needs although foraging from their camps or wagons was acceptable. Watkins was a religious man but like his comrades, had little patience with chaplains who delivered incomprehensible or inappropriate sermons or who ran to the rear at the first sign of a battle. Chapter 10 ends with his descriptions of the battles of Missionary Ridge and the Confederate retreat which were among his best for the feelings of immediacy they conveyed as well as his mental status during his close encounters with death, wounding or capture.

In summary, Watkins talks directly or indirectly of motivations such as patriotism, duty, belief in the right of secession, defense of one's home and state against an invading army, affection for his comrades and love for his family. Sentiments likely shared with most soldiers fighting for the Confederacy.

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