What Is The Theme Of Company Aytch Or A Side Show Of The Big Show

COMPANY AYTCH BOOK REVIEW In today’s society our history books are often written by the victors of our battles and wars. We have a tendency to sugar coat what really happened and to, in a way, glorify war. It is very uncommon to come across a book that details what life was like on the losing end, even more so, one that was written twenty years after a war took place. Company Aytch: Or A Side Show of the Big Show was written by a man by the name of Samuel Rush Watkins. Watkins had been an ordinary foot solider and a private in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. When he was twenty one years old Watkins volunteered to serve in the Army of the Tennessee; a service that would take him to the front lines of almost every major battle in

He reveals the actions and intentions behind the everyday confederate soldier who suffered and lived through this horrific and costly war; their youth gone up in a whirl wind and lost forever. He does a magnificent job of hashing out the thoughts running through most of the men’s minds. For example, when describing the battle of Shiloh, “I had heard and read of battlefields, seen pictures of battlefields, of horses and men, of cannons and wagons, all jumbled together, while the ground was strewn with dead and dying and wounded, but I must confess that I never realized the “pomp and circumstance” of the thing called glorious war until I saw this. Men were lying in every conceivable position; the dead lying with their eyes wide open, the wounded begging piteously for help, and some waving their hats and shouting to us to go forward. It all seemed to me a dream; I seemed to be in a sort of haze, when siz, siz, siz, the minnie balls from the Yankee lines began to whistle around our ears”

While Watkins’ account of the war was a thrilling read, he himself states that he was not writing history but only his recollections. It is for this reason, that many of the major battles he discussed, I felt weren’t given enough attention. Shiloh and Chickamauga were two of the most influential battles in the Civil War and Watkins only covers them briefly. He also writes his memoirs as if he were talking to a friend and relaxing on his front porch; while this creates a lively story it is hard to follow if you do not already know who the generals are that he discusses. Furthermore, his recollection of what happened is twenty years old and memories can be misleading or faulty. For example, throughout some of Watkins book he refers to a general under the name of Albert Sidney Johnson. However, the general’s real name is recorded in history books as Albert Sidney Johnston or A.S. Johnston, the highest ranking officer to be killed in the Civil War. When recounting his tale, Watkins fails to mention how significant Johnston was to the Confederate Rebel Army and why his death was so influential to the