Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1996. [Vol. 3.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 23)

STUDIES - M. Thomas Inge: Sam Watkins and the Fictionality of Fact

joined his neighborhood friends and enlisted first in the Bigby Grays on April 26 and later the Maury Grays on May 15, then being organized as Company H of the First Regiment Tennessee Volunteers. When word came that Virginia had been invaded, the First Tennessee voted to join their forces. Thus Sam first saw action in September with the Army of Northwestern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee, whom he would describe as a kind, courtly, and charismatic man: "I fell in love with the old gentleman," said Watkins, after speaking with him, "and felt like going home with him" (W, 18—19). As we witness by the narrative of "Co. Aytch

," Watkins would fight through some of the most difficult battles of the Civil War. Service at Shiloh was followed by the Corinth, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, the Hundred Days Battles, Atlanta, Jonesboro, Franklin, and Nashville campaigns. He was wounded three times at Murfreesboro, Atlanta, and Nashville but always recovered to reenter the fray. Out of the original 1,250 men who formed the Army of Tennessee, and the 1,950 recruits and conscripts who joined them, only 65 officers and men remained when the war was concluded in 1865. Out of the 120 men who enlisted with Watkins in Company H in 1861, he was one of only seven survivors. It was during the lull following the bloody battle at Murfreesboro that young Watkins took French leave for three days to visit his fiancée, Virginia Jane Mayes, in Columbia. He escaped court-martial with only a forfeiture of four months pay. He returned to marry her on September 5, 1865, and settled down to married life, a succession of eight children, and divided his time between farming and running a general store. In April of 1881, he began to devote his evenings and early mornings to writing, and before his death on July 20, 1901, at the age of 62, Watkins had written or published in addition to "Co. Aytch" a quantity of articles for magazines and newspapers about his Civil War experiences. He seemed possessed by a keen desire to tell about the war from the ground up, as it appeared to a man who lived, fought, and survived one of the worst conflicts in human history. 50