 Today, he is best known for his enduring memoir, ""Co. Aytch"" (1882), which recounts his life as a soldier in the First Tennessee.In May 1861, 21 year old Sam Watkins of Maury County, Tennessee, rushed to join the army when his state left the Union.He became part of Company H (or Co. "Aytch," as he called it), 1st Tennessee Infantry regiment, and would fight from Shiloh to Nashville and was one of only seven men who remained in the company when it was surrendered to U.S. Major-General W. T. Sherman in North Carolina, April 1865.