40 Fun Facts About Co. Aytch

Which filmmaker's 1990 documentary The Civil War quotes Sam Watkins, the author of Co. Aytch?

Ken Burns featured and quoted Watkins in the series, almost ninety years after the old soldier died in 1901.

In Co. Aytch, which general, visiting camp in Virginia, looks to Sam Watkins like a kindly grandfather?

Robert E. Lee rode in alone and unarmed, and when he left, Watkins ran to fetch his horse and was thanked with 'my son'.

The title of Sam Watkins's memoir Co. Aytch spells out which letter of his infantry company?

H was the letter: Watkins served in Company H of the First Tennessee Infantry and was one of only seven of its original members left at the surrender.

In Co. Aytch, what pet named Fed, short for Confederacy, does Tom Tuck carry in a haversack?

A game rooster named Fed crowed the regiment awake at daybreak until he lost a cock fight at Atlanta and went into the frying pan.

In Co. Aytch, starving troops on Missionary Ridge beg which visiting dignitary for something to eat?

Jefferson Davis galloped down the line with a large staff while the men shouted that they were hungry and begged him to send food.

In Co. Aytch, Sam Watkins's regiment reaches Virginia by train one night too late for which battle?

First Manassas had been won that very day, and the men envied the wounded, sure the war would end before they saw a Yankee.

In Co. Aytch, what does Sam Watkins bayonet on picket by the Potomac, sure it is a Yankee?

A stump took the bayonet through and through after it ignored his challenge in the snow; he tells it as a typical private's memory of the war.

In Co. Aytch, soldiers go rat hunting on hearing that which besieged city's garrison lived on rats?

Vicksburg's defenders were said to be eating rats, so Watkins's mess caught and fried one; he lost his appetite at the last moment.

In Co. Aytch, mutinous soldiers on the 1862 march to Romney curse which general as 'Fool Tom'?

Stonewall Jackson was blamed even for the weather, and in Watkins's telling he offered his resignation after the troops refused to march further.

Before it was printed as a book in 1882, in what form did Co. Aytch first reach readers?

A newspaper serial in his hometown paper, the Columbia Herald, came first, running from 1881 to 1882 before the columns were collected.

In Co. Aytch, which commanding general is called a merciless tyrant whom no soldier ever loved?

Braxton Bragg had deserters shot, whipped and branded before the assembled army, Watkins recalls, and kept his men on short rations.

In Co. Aytch, which new commander wins the army over at Dalton with furloughs and fuller rations?

Joseph E. Johnston also had whisky and tobacco issued twice a week, and Watkins believed any soldier under him would gladly have died for him.

In Co. Aytch, which state's soldiers are jeered with 'Flicker!', the call of the yellowhammer?

Alabama troops were called yellowhammers after the bird, so the Tennesseans imitated its call when a brigade gave way in front of them at Shiloh.

In Co. Aytch, what trick lets a soldier named Dornin win every louse race in camp at Tupelo?

Heating his plate sent Dornin's louse scurrying off first every time, and he pocketed the stakes until the others found him out.

In Co. Aytch, what ends a visiting preacher's fiery war sermon in the woods before Chickamauga?

A runaway bull, mad with fright, tore through the service, flattened the preacher and sent the hymnals flying in every direction.

In Co. Aytch, what has become of the eleven pickets the First Tennessee relieves at St. John's Run?

They had frozen to death at their posts, two of them still standing sentinel with loaded guns in their hands.

The subtitle of Co. Aytch compares Sam Watkins's memoir to which humble fairground attraction?

A side show of the big show is how the subtitle puts it: generals and historians had told the main event, and he would tell the rest.

In Co. Aytch, a Confederate law lets any man go home if he owns twenty of what?

Slaves were what counted: the exemption for owners of twenty embittered the conscripts, and Watkins says it gave them the blues.

In Co. Aytch, what was the local name of Sam Watkins's company, raised around Columbia, Tennessee?

The Maury Grays marched off with 120 men; when the company came home in 1864, Watkins counted just twelve of the originals.

In Co. Aytch, which general, known to his men as a bishop, is carried dead off a Georgia hilltop?

Leonidas Polk was struck by a cannon shot while studying the Union lines through a field glass, and Watkins felt he had lost a friend.

In Co. Aytch, whose appointment to command the army before Atlanta makes thousands of men cry?

John Bell Hood was a brave soldier and a good man, in Watkins's verdict, but a failure as a general in every particular.

In Co. Aytch, whose rear-guard stand at Ringgold Gap is likened to the Spartans at Thermopylae?

Patrick Cleburne's division stopped the Union pursuit after Missionary Ridge in what Watkins calls the doggondest fight of the war.

In Co. Aytch, which Kentucky battle does Sam Watkins call the hardest and most evenly fought he saw?

Perryville cost the First Tennessee more than 350 killed and wounded, and Watkins came out with holes shot through his hat and cartridge box.

In Co. Aytch, the 'Dead Angle' held by the First Tennessee in June 1864 is part of which battle?

Kennesaw Mountain left his arm bruised from wrist to shoulder: Watkins says he fired 120 rounds that day, swapping guns with dead comrades.

In Co. Aytch, which 1864 Tennessee battle is called the blackest page in the history of the war?

Franklin killed or wounded thirteen Confederate generals by his count, and he wished he could tear the page from his memoirs and his memory.

In Co. Aytch, in which state does the First Tennessee stack its guns for the last time in 1865?

North Carolina saw the end at Greensboro, where Watkins says only sixty-five men were paroled of the 3,200 who had served in the regiment.

In Co. Aytch, what act at Atlanta earns Sam Watkins his promotion to fourth corporal?

Picking up a flag the charge had already swept past won him the stripes, and he admits he only wanted it to make a shirt.

In Co. Aytch, what kills ten soldiers kneeling at the mourners' bench during a camp revival?

A falling tree, left smoldering for days after a camp clean-up, crashed across the bench without warning during the evening service.

In Co. Aytch, what does an inspector find in Sergeant Horsley's knapsack instead of clothing?

Books filled it, from Webster's dictionary to Ivanhoe and Les Misérables; Horsley carried literature for the whole regiment.

In Co. Aytch, what does Schwartz slip into Pfifer's knapsack in place of his hoarded beef tallow?

A rock of about thirty pounds rode on Pfifer's back all day; their captain then made Schwartz carry it for two days.

In Co. Aytch, the beloved chaplain C. T. Quintard also serves the regiment in what second role?

Physician on weekdays and preacher on Sundays, Quintard marched with a knapsack like the men and later became Bishop of Tennessee.

In Co. Aytch, which scarce English long-range rifle is given only to the best marksmen in the army?

Whitworth rifles were so few that they went to shooting-match winners, who became sharpshooters and were excused camp duty.

In Co. Aytch, what nickname do passing cavalrymen throw at Sam Watkins and other infantrymen?

Webfoot was the jibe he heard when he borrowed a horse for three days while still wearing his knapsack and carrying a bayonet.

In Co. Aytch, what scornful name do privates give staff officers and couriers who ride past them?

Yellow dogs, or yaller dogs in Watkins's spelling, drew so much whistling and dog-calling that a general order threatened punishment for mocking them.

In Co. Aytch, what formation does the First Tennessee take at Resaca to beat off Union cavalry?

A hollow square with the front row kneeling behind bayonets stopped the horses, which Watkins says had more sense than to ride onto it.

In Co. Aytch, why are skirmishers at Murfreesboro ordered to cease firing on a Union line?

It was thought friendly by officers who, Watkins says, had drunk too much Christmas whisky to tell their own men from Yankees.

In Co. Aytch, how does William A. Hughes save Sam Watkins's life at the cost of his own?

Grabbing a gun muzzle as it fired, Hughes took the whole charge in his hand and arm, and left Watkins his blanket and his prized rifle.

In Co. Aytch, why does Sam Watkins slip out of camp by canoe, earning himself a court-martial?

To see his sweetheart he went home for a single day, and it cost him four months' pay, though an amnesty spared him the hard labor.

In Co. Aytch, what does Sam Watkins leave on the table of the widow whose hog was stolen?

A hundred-dollar bill in Confederate money was his apology after she refused it as blood money; he never touched a bite of the hog.

In Co. Aytch, which governor's 'pets' are the militia who reach Atlanta in plug hats with umbrellas?

Joe Brown, Georgia's governor, sent men in dusters and plug hats, yet Watkins led a squad of them in a charge and found them gallant.