Civil War Quotes - Page 19

• No State, upon it own mere motion, can lawfully get out of the Union. Resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally nothing. I therefore consider that the Union is unbroken. There needs to be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be none, unless forced upon the national authority.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Needs, Unbroken

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• I don't s'pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better'n I do-and gets less'n I do.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Gingerbread, Earth

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• We ran like a herd of wild cattle.

  William C. Oates

  War, Herds, Cattle

  Frank Haskell, Franklin Aretas Haskell, William C. Oates (1992). “Gettysburg: Two Eyewitness Accounts”, Bantam Books

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• I have been a soldier all my life. I have commanded companies, I have commanded regiments. I have commanded divisions. And I have commanded even more. But there are no fifteen thousand men i the world that can go across that ground.

  James Longstreet

  War, Men, Soldier

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• There are but two parties now: traitors and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter and, I trust, the stronger party.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  War, Party, Two

  Ulysses S. Grant, John Y. Simon (1969). “The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: April to September, 1861”, p.7, SIU Press

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• Retreat? NO. I propose to attach at daylight and whip them.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  War, Daylight, Retreat

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• ...but for a soldier his duty is plain. He is to obey the orders of all those placed over him and whip the enemy wherever he meets him.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  War, Order, Soldier

  Ulysses Simpson Grant, John Y. Simon (1974). “The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant: April 1-August 31, 1862”, p.146, SIU Press

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• I never knew what to do with a paper except to put it in a side pocket or pass it to a clerk who understood it better than I did.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  War, Clerks, Pockets

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• It's a disagreeable thing to be whipped.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Disagreeable

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• Many and many a person in Georgia asked me why we did not go to South Carolina; and, when I answered that we were en route for that State, the invariable reply was, - Well, if you will make those people feel the utmost severities of war, we will pardon you for your desolation of Georgia.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, People, South Carolina

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1875). “Memoirs of General William T. Sherman”, p.228

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• War's Legitimate Object Is More Perfect Peace.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Perfect, Objects

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• I see every chance of a long, confused and disorganizing civil war, and I feel no desire to take a hand therein.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Confused, Hands

  William Tecumseh Sherman (2015). “Home Letters of General Sherman”, p.130, BIG BYTE BOOKS

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• I begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash-and it may be well that we become so hardened.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Death, Morning, Couple

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1974). “"War is hell!": William T. Sherman's personal narrative of his march through Georgia”

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• Wars are not all evil, they are part of the grand machinery by which this world is governed.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Evil, World

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• There is nothing finer in history than Thomas at Chickamauga.

  Henry M. Cist

  War

  Henry M. Cist (2004). “The Army of the Cumberland: The Army and Navy in The Civil War”, p.227, Digital Scanning Inc

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• The next time we met was at Appomattox, and the first thing that General Grant said to me when we stepped inside, placing his hand in mine was, Pete, let us have another game of brag, to recall the days that were so pleasant. Great God! I thought to myself, how my heart swells out to such magnanimous touch of humanity. Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?

  James Longstreet

  Brother, War, Heart

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• Let me tell you what is coming.... Your fathers and husbands, your sons and brothers, will be herded at the point of the bayonet... You may, after the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and of thousands of lives, as a bare possibility, win Southern independence...but I doubt it.

  Sam Houston

  Brother, Husband, War

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• I am out of money,we are all out of money,but we dont need money down here- Dont need anything but Men , Muskets, Ammunition, Hard Tack, Bacon and Letters from home.

  James A. Connolly

  War, Home, Men

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• For myself, I care not whether treason be committed North or South; he that is guilty of treason is entitled to a traitor's fate!

  Andrew Johnson

  War, Fate, Care

  Andrew Johnson (1866). “Life and Times of A. Johnson ... Written from a national stand-point. By a National Man”, p.131

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• Conquer or be conquered.

  David Farragut

  War, Conquer

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• Brave men die in battle.

  William Rosecrans

  War, Men, Brave

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• To tell the truth, I just lost confidence in Joe Hooker.

  Joseph Hooker

  War, Telling The Truth, Lost

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• He had somehow, with all his modesty, the rare faculty of controlling his superiors as well as his subordinates. He outfaced Stanton, captivated the President, and even compelled acquiescence or silence from that dread source of paralyzing power, the Congressional Committee on the Conduct of the War.

  Joshua Chamberlain

  War, Silence, President

  Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1998). “The Passing of the Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac, Based Upon Personal Reminiscences of the Fifth Army Corps”, p.29, U of Nebraska Press

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• I think we continually need to understand how important an event the war was - how defining, how central to who we are. Everything that came before it led up to it, and everything of importance to this country - at least up to 1940 - was a consequence of it. Even now there's an echo of the war, however faint, in almost everyone's life.

  Ken Burns

  Country, War, Thinking

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• This will be a great day in our history; the date of a New Revolution - quite as much needed as the old one. Even now as I write they are leading old John Brown to execution in Virginia for attempting to rescue slaves! This is sowing the wind to reap the whirlwind which will come soon!

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  War, Writing, Virginia

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.2428, Delphi Classics

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