“The youngest one began to beg and cry and plead most piteously. Army spies, one of which he believed to be 14 years old. One time Watkins witnessed the execution of two U.S. Soldiers were often required to witness executions, ostensibly as a way of maintaining discipline. “He scared me worse when dead than when living.” “I raised my gun, placed it to my shoulder, took deliberate aim, and fired, and ‘waugh-weouw,’ the most unearthly scream I had ever heard greeted my ears.” Two days later, Watkins found that the dead Yankee had been stripped of his clothes and possessions and that his body had become swollen and blackened from exposure to the heat. “I saw, or I thought I saw, the dim outlines of a Yankee soldier, lying on the ground not more than ten steps from where I stood,” he wrote. In July 1864 Watkins killed a federal scout outside Atlanta in the middle of the night. “We got very friendly during the night, and made a raid upon a citizen’s pantry, where we captured a bucket of honey, a pitcher of sweet milk, and three or four biscuits,” he wrote.Īt other times, guards tried to kill each other. During those nights, it was not unusual for guards on opposing armies to become friends. Army was camped out just across a road or river. Watkins frequently did guard duty in the middle of the night, sometimes when the U.S. Company Aytch contains horrifying descriptions of battles and amusing anecdotes about day-to-day life as a soldier.

At a time when many Civil War accounts were descriptions of troop movements and casualty counts, Watkins account was startling to readers for its honesty.

Sam watkins company aytch