DOB:  ? DOD:  ? Comments: Confederate Veteran Magazine Volume 1 page 262: “Snowball battle in Dalton – Little Jimmie White” by Samuel R. Watkins “This snow ball battle lasted all day. A good number of the boys were quite badly hurt. My little bedfellow, Jimmie White, a mere boy of fourteen years, was run over by a caisson and both his legs broken, and he was otherwise injured.  Poor boy, tears rush to my eyes when I go back in memory to the death of the clever lad.  I cry now when I think of him. Poor little fellow, how he suffered, and how he hated to die! Sanker, my negro servant, brought him and laid him on our bunk.” This is the only reference to Sanker made by Sam Watkins.  His name does not appear in his memoir “Company Aytch”, most likely because he was not involved in any of the tales Sam relates.  As a body servant he would not have gone into battle with the regiment, nor stood guard, and most likely did not go with Sam on any of his other adventures that he viewed as worth mentioning.  Sanker’s name does not appear on any post war genealogical resources.  Sanker Watkins may not even be his real name.  Former slaves were mentioned by name for the first time on the 1870 census.  Before then just their age, sex, and race were listed under their master’s name.  Slaves typically took the last name of their former master and there is no Sanker Watkins on any census that has been found.  When this article was written, not everyone had a typewriter so it is possible that Sam sent this article in handwritten and the person transcribing it got his name wrong.  Another possibility is Watkins is not his last name.  For example, Ephriam Otey served Anthony Camp of the 1st TN but belonged to a John Otey who was not in the army.  The final possibility is the off chance he died before the 1870 census.  No matter what the reason, the only thing that is known about him is one sentence from an article written by Sam Watkins.