His six-page introduction contains a short biography of Watkins, as well as an overview of Civil War army organization. Aytch accessible to non-specialists, and he has largely succeeded in doing so. Leigh, an independent historian and regular contributor to the New York Times’ “Disunion” blog, has provided over 240 annotations, 23 maps, and 17 illustrations and photographs “to help readers visualize the events, people, and places Sam experienced in his four years as an ordinary Confederate soldier” (xi). Aytch have appeared, though Philip Leigh’s latest edition from Westholme Publishing is the first that is both illustrated and fully annotated. Aytch remained relatively unknown outside of specialist circles until 1990, when Ken Burns’ documentary The Civil War highlighted Watkins’ wartime experiences and quoted from his memoir. Though it was subsequently published in several book-length editions, Co. Aytch.” Fifteen years later he penned his war memoir, which was first serialized in his hometown Columbia Herald in the early 1880s. When the Army of Tennessee surrendered in the spring of 1865, Watkins was one of only seven men to survive service in “Co. Over the next four years, he participated in a number of major military engagements, including those at Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Franklin, and Nashville. Watkins, who was born near Columbia, Tennessee, in 1839, enlisted in Company H of the First Tennessee Infantry (Confederate) in the spring of 1861.
Aytch has long been regarded as one of the finest memoirs written by a common soldier of the American Civil War. Aytch, or a Side Show of the Big Show by Sam Watkins and edited by Philip Leigh.
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