Co. Aytch
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Sam R. Watkins—Co. “Aytch” Maury Grays, First Tennessee Regiment Or, A Side Show of the Big Show • 978-1-57736-382-8 • $34.95 • 352 pages • hardcover • 6x9 • Imprint:PHP The classic Co. Aytch has reigned as one of the most memorable and honest depictions of the American Civil War since its orginal publication in 1882. Sam R. Watkins’s first-hand account of life as a Confederate soldier eloquently captured the realities of war, the humor and pathos of soldiering, and the tragic, historic events in which he participated. Although there have been dozens of versions of Co. Aytch published, this is the first with new material and revisions by Sam Watkins himself. Intending to republish after his first edition sold out, Watkins edited and revised Co. Aytch, adding a new perspective that only came with time. He died before accomplishing his goal. Now more than one hundred years later, Watkins’s great granddaughter, Ruth Hill Fulton McAllister is fulfilling Watkins’s dream. Using his yellowed, aged, and pencil-marked copy handed down through different family members, McAllister has crafted a masterpiece that combines the ageless text with Sam Watkins’s intended revisions. This new edition incorporates actual images of Watkins’s handwritten additions, all his desired editorial changes, and more than forty images. Desiring to be true to both her ancestor’s wishes and the sanctity of his classic memoir, McAllister skillfully included Watkins’s additions and artfully indicated what he would have omitted, leaving the original text intact. The result is a rich, expanded “director’s cut” version of Co. Aytch, sure to fascinate historians, Civil War enthusiasts, and new readers alike. Author Bios: Samuel R. Watkins was born on June 26, 1839 near Columbia, Tennessee. He enlisted into the First Tennessee Infantry, Company H (the “Maury Grays”) 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. They were first published as a newspaper series and then finally published in book form in 1882. It was almost immediately hailed as aan important Civil War work. After the war, Sam married his sweetheart Jennie, and they raised 3 children. Sam Watkins died on July 20, 1901, at the age of sixty-two. Ruth Hill Fulton McAllister is Sam Watkins’s great granddaughter. She earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Vanderbilt University. After earning her degree, Ruth taught high-school history and government in LaFayette, Georgia, where she served as a staff member for Campus Crusade for Christ. She is currently assistant producer of the syndicated call-in radio show “Dawson McAllister Live.” Ruth and her husband, Dawson, live in Columbia, Tennessee, and have two sons. Ruth’s grandmother was Louisa Watkins Fulton, Sam’s daughter. It is her great pleasure to make her great grandfather’s dream come true. Review Quotes: “The only thing better than Sam Watkins is more Sam Watkins. This is a marvelous expansion of the best memoir of a fighting soldier south of the Mason Dixon line we have.” Ken Burns, Filmmaker “Sam Watkins’s memoir Co. Aytch has long been a classic of Civil War literature, and this new edition only makes it moreso. His revisions and additions enhance and refine his story. Some of them are pointed, others hilarious, but they all add depth to one of the must-read soldier narratives of that conflict.” William C. Davis Director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and Virginia Tech “Of all memoirs by a Civil War footsoldier, Sam Watkins’s Co. Aytch is probably the best known. His keen intelligence, mature understanding, sound historical perspective, and engaging style strikingly convey the timeless, horrendous hell ‘of the thing called glorious war.’ Fighting in all of his regiment’s major battles from Shiloh to Nashville, no veteran knew war more intimately than Watkins. Now this new edition, featuring the Tennessean’s handwritten revisions, particularly underscoring his disgust with Confederate conscription, incompetent generals, the military caste system, and more, will surely garner a receptive audience among all who recognize and respect honest realism.” James Lee McDonough Professor Emeritus of History, Auburn University Author of, Nashville: The Western Confederacy’s Final Gamble, and other Civil War books “Reading ‘Co. Aytch--Ten Years Later’ compared to the original we've always known is like the difference between seeing a baseball game through a knothole in the outfield fence and a seat behind home plate. It's the same event, but the expanded view makes it a whole 'nother experience. With this new edition, Company Aytch will reach a new plateau—to become the first book to achieve ‘classic’ stature twice.” Joe Avalon Editor, Civil War Interactive “Incorporating revisions and notes that he prepared for a second edition that never went to press, this new edition of Sam R. Watkins’s Co. Aytch is fascinating. It provides a rare opportunity to see an author’s revisions in his own handwriting as well as in easy to read type. It is timely as well with the Civil War Sesquicentennial less than four years away. All should be grateful to the publisher and to Sam’s great granddaughter Ruth Hill Fulton McAllister who acquired the marked up first edition from another family member in 1999 and now shares it.” Walter T. Durham Tennessee State Historian “Sam Watkins’s chronicle of soldiering in the Confederate army is one of the most powerful accounts yet of the violence, sacrifice, and heroism of the Civil War. This valuable new book, including for the first time Watkins’s own handwritten revisions of the original edition, is most welcome and timely.” Carroll Van West Director, Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area Director, MTSU Center for Historic Preservation