Company Aytch is a book that depicts the idealistic memory of a young confederate of the Civil War named Sam Watkins. Some historians articulate towards Watkins having insufficiency of precise facts and sometimes alteration or exaggeration on certain issues. (Watkins & Inge, Introduction) However, it is important to appreciate that Sam Watkins was a survivor that has revealed his recollection of the battles as he has experienced them, and although some may believe his memory has some deficiencies he has a real life testimony that cannot be too farfetched from the reality of the life of a soldier during the Civil War. Sam Watkins was born on the 26th day of June on his father’s farm in Columbia Tennessee where he worked during his youth. There is not much told about other work experiences other than Sam working as a clerk in a local store until he enlisted with Company H of the First Tennessee Infantry in the year of 1861. Sam was only 21 years old, a young confederate, and at this time many signs of war were uprising between the North and the South. (Watkins & Inge, Introduction). His entry is the beginning of the memoirs told by Sam Watkins, an ordinary soldier, not of any high rank, which indeed gives the reader another perspective of the reality of the battles faced during the Civil War. Furthermore, it broadens the view of the emotional triumph a frontline soldier and what they went through rather than focusing on the higher ranking officers. Watkins tells in great detail his experiences and writes of his historical remembrances years later, but he never hides the fact that he is writing solely on his memory and what he saw. In addition to him repeatedly reminding the reader that he writes of his recollections only, he also reminds the reader that what he writes is true. Furthermore, he encourages the reader to refer to history for other historical facts. Later in the report I will tell of an occurrence that…
The French including Marquette and Joliet, La Salle as well as De Tonti, had several roles in Arkansas from the 1600s to the 1780s. In 1673, Marquette and Joliet came down the Mississippi River and crossed over to the mouth of the Arkansas River. Their role in Arkansas during the 1600s was to find a route to the Orient countries, but they were not successful in finding the route. They found that the Mississippi River led down to the Gulf of Mexico. However, the two explorers did stop in an Indian village near what is present day Helena, Arkansas.…
One of the most complex and elaborate characters in Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison is Bone. Throughout the story Bone has to live a life where she thinks that she is the leading mystery of the trouble being caused. She has numerous unhappy situations and is in no way self-satisfied with herself. She doesn 't appreciate who she is physically. She constantly thinks she is the most homely and dull person who causes the most inconvenience in the family. This sense of selflessness is mainly due to the physical and sexual abuse brought upon by Daddy Glen, Bone 's stepfather. Unfortunately, the assaults were stretched out over a long period of time, leaving little chance for Bone to recover as an adult if any at all. I decided to take a more scientific approach to discussing Bone 's future as an adult. The most common disorders I feel Bone is likely to face are posttraumatic stress, cognitive distortions, emotional pain, and avoidance, an impaired sense of self and interpersonal difficulties. After finishing some research I concluded that Bone would most likely be diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder. It entails enduring certain psychological symptoms that occur in reaction to a highly distressing, psychically disruptive event. A diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires the occurrence of a traumatic event, as well as frequent experiencing of the event through nightmares or intrusive thoughts, a numbing of general responsiveness to, or avoidance of, current events, and persistent symptoms of increased arousal, such as jumpiness, sleep disturbance, or poor concentration. All of these occurrences are a result from the sexual abuse Bone was forced to tolerate from Glen. Triggers of flashbacks include sexual stimuli or interactions, abusive behavior by other adults, disclosure of one 's abuse experiences to others, and reading or seeing sexual or violent media depictions, all of which would more than likely be experienced throughout Bone…
On this day, March 5, the nurse has had enough and the school's principal and the local police are called. In no time, young Dave is in a police cruiser, being taken to the San Mateo Juvenile Department, never to return home. It is important that Pelzer begin his story here, with the event he…
During the American Civil War, there were such things called guerrillas. No, I am not talking about the muscular black creatures that hide in the jungle. Though that is exactly how the Confederate independent companies got there name. Where and when did guerrilla warfare begin? Who did it involve? Who were these so called guerrillas and what was there strategy? Did certain Military commanders in Arkansas make an impact on the use of guerrillas? What were the strategies that Federals and Unionists used to stop guerrilla warfare? Daniel Sutherland’s Guerrillas: The Real War In Arkansas explains how partisan fighters helped shape the strategic and tactical patterns of the war. Shows us the reasons men became guerrillas, their roles in the Confederate service, and the guerrilla operations effectiveness.…
Wyatt-Brown, Bertam, HONOR AND VIOLENCE IN THE OLD SOUTH, Oxford University, New York, 1986 (1).…
It was a regular day for everyone in town, until a red and white truck passed by speeding down one of the main roads passing cars. Everyone got inside their homes because they knew this was not going to end well. The two trucks stopped about a block away from Joaquin’s house he saw everything happen. Then three men got out of the red truck with guns and started shooting at the white truck. The men inside the truck were trying to get cover, but they were not so innocent because they had guns and were trying to kill their cartel rivals as well. They kept firing back and forth and soon three of the same cartel survived and left the scene before any police showed up. Many people might have thought I got this scene from a movie, but Joaquin is my uncle and he witnessed all that violence while he was trying to get his kids inside the house so that they would not get hurt.…
Loyalty is a state of devoted attachment to someone or something. Loyalty is perhaps one of the most admirable qualities one can have; it is not only a measure of one's true character, but one's decisions as well. In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there is no greater loyalty than that which exists between young Huck Finn and Jim. Jim demonstrates his loyalty to Huck by remaining with Huck as almost a paternal figure once he misses his turn on the river for Cairo, thereby continuing deeper into the hazardous South. Huck, in turn, demonstrates his loyalty to Jim by returning for Jim once Jim is taken captive. By doing so, Huck also demonstrates his loyalty to humanity through his betrayal of racism. In Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain develops the theme that loyalty is measured through one's actions in times of crisis by having Huckleberry break class lines and befriend a runaway slave in the racist antebellum years.…
Throughout the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper Lee presented many examples to the reader regarding honour and loyalty. Harper developed the traits of honour and loyalty through her portrayal of the characters; Atticus Finch, Arthur “Boo” Radley, and Calpurnia.…
What was Reconstruction? (Both Presidential and Congressional) How did? Or did it change the South and Arkansas?…
Every major war in history has two things in common: a winner and a loser. There are many factors of war that decide the winner and the loser, some going unnoticed. The geography of a war has an impacting affect on the war and is sometimes overlooked, often leading to one side's downfall (Falls 5). Appalachia has a fluctuating geography, for it ranges from eroded down, plain-like areas, to mountains areas of up to almost 7000 feet (“The Appalachians”). The Civil War had many battles located in Appalachia, an area stretching from southern parts of New York, all the way down to northern Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi(“The Appalachians”). Appalachian geography was home to many battlefields of the Civil War, but could this geography actually have had an overall impact?…
To southern men, honor was everything. I dictated their standing in society, whether or not they could own slaves; it basically was a secret caste system. A man held in the highest honor experienced a good life from a social stance in the south. The honor system used in the south was related to the language used by southern gentlemen.# Honor and Slavery by Kenneth S. Greenburg attempts to explain the vernacular and customs used by men in the antebellum south. It would be hard for a person in today's society to understand the way honor was shown; it would have even been a challenge for men living in the Northern United States to understand at that time.# As Greenburg states, "Since the language of honor was the dominant language of the men who ruled the slave South, we will never understand masters, the nature of slavery, or the Civil war without first understanding that language."# To be a powerful man in the south, society also had to consider you to be an honorable man. Honor and power in the South were parallel to each other; a man with a high honor ranking was usually a prominent member of society.#…
The romanticized version of the Civil War creates a picture of the North versus the South with the North imposing on the South. However, after reading “The Making of a Confederate” by William L. Barney, one can see that subdivisions existed before the war was declared. The documents analyzed by Barney primarily focus on the experiences of Walter Lenoir, a southern confederate and a member of the planter elite. His experiences tell a vivid story of a passionate and strongly opinioned participant of the Civil War as well as demonstrate a noticeably different view involving his reasoning when choosing a side. Between analyzing this fantastic piece of literature and other resourceful documents from “Voices of Freedom” by Eric Foner, one can get a better idea of what the conflict was about, where the Confederacy originated from, the cause for the secession, and how Americans experienced the war and understood its meaning.…
I am so proud of our men for holding of this position against the Confederates. It's been fairly easy though. Since we are on top of a ledge whenever the enemy tries to storm us, we use the high position advantage to shoot the tried men that had to climb up to us. As a write in my journal I am really adrenaline pumped, but starting to get tired, we have been fighting for a really long time in my mind.…
The Quapaw, Caddo and Osage were three tribes that occupied lands in Arkansas when the Europeans arrived in the early 1500's. All three tribes were very similar and different in other ways. In the end all three tribes today live on different reservations around the country and still struggle to keep their culture, history and memories alive.…