'Why, hello, corporal, where did you get those two yellow stripes from on your arm?' Or there is his account of when he was promoted from private to corporal: If I shot at an officer, it was at long range, but when we got down to close quarters I always tried to kill those that were trying to kill me.” I always looked upon officers as harmless personages. It was they that did the shooting and killing, and if I could kill or wound a private, why, my chances were so much the better. However, Watkins is equally adept at humorous accounts of camp life and wry observations on his place as a common soldier: The death-angel shrieks and laughs and old Father Time is busy with his sickle, as he gathers in the last harvest of death, crying, More, more, more! while his rapacious maw is glutted with the slain.” Occasionally there was a little lull in the storm of battle, as the men were loading their guns, and for a few moments it seemed as if night tried to cover the scene with her mantle. It runs in streams, making little rivulets as it flows. Forward, men! And the blood spurts in a perfect jet from the dead and wounded. It seemed that the very elements of heaven and earth were in one mighty uproar. Never on this earth did men fight against such terrible odds. “Forward, men! The air loaded with death-dealing missiles. Watkins is certainly capable of dramatic recollections of the events that took such a heavy toll on his comrades, as in his memories of the horrific battle of Franklin, Tennessee: Watkins served throughout the war and was one of the very few survivors of his group of all those who had enlisted with Company H, fewer than 10 were still alive at the time of General Johnston’s surrender to General Sherman. One of the best-known accounts was by Samuel Rush Watkins, who wrote his memoirs of the time he spent in the First Tennessee Infantry, Company H, also known as the Maury Greys. During these years marking the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War there has been renewed interest in personal narratives of the conflict.

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