Civil War Quotes - Page 4

• By some strange operation of magic I seem to have become the power of the land.

  George B. McClellan

  War, Land, Magic

  George B. McClellan (1998). “McClellan's Own Story: The War for the Union”, p.82, Digital Scanning Inc

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• That old man...had my division massacred at Gettysburg!

  George Pickett

  War, Men, Division

  Richard F. Selcer, George E. Pickett (1995). “"Faithfully and forever your soldier": Gen. George E. Pickett, CSA”

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• In the name of God and humanity I protest!

  John Bell Hood

  War, Names, Humanity

  John Bell Hood (1996). “Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies”, p.230, U of Nebraska Press

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• All this has been my fault.

  Robert E. Lee

  War, Faults, Has Beens

  John Esten Cooke, Robert E. Lee (2017). “General Robert E. Lee: The True Story of the Infamous “Marble Man”: The Life & Legacy of Robert E. Lee, Including & Personal Writings, Speeches and Orders”, p.287, Madison & Adams

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• We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Party, Mean

  Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)”, p.1338, Jazzybee Verlag

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• I have just read your dispatch about sore-tongued and fatigued horses, Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the Battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?

  Abraham Lincoln

  Horse, War, Army

  Letter to George B. McClellan, 24 Oct. 1862

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• I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans on the triumph of the government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution.

  Sullivan Ballou

  War, Government, Blood

  "'We Are All Exceptional.' Read Chuck Schumer's Inauguration Day Remarks" by Mahita Gajanan, time.com. January 20, 2017.

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• The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here so nobly advanced.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Unfinished Work, Long

  Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pa., 19 Nov. 1863.

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• I think that Lee should have been hanged. It was all the worse that he was a good man and a fine character and acted conscientiously... It's always the good men who do the most harm in the world.

  Henry Adams

  War, Character, Men

  "American Heritage" Magazine, December 1955.

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• I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races: that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Race, White

  Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Charleston, Ill., 18 Sept. 1858

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• In glades they meet skull after skull
  Where pine cones lay-the rusted gun,
  Green shoes full of bones,
  the mouldering coat And cuddled up skeleton;
  And scores of such.
  Some start as in dreams,
  And comrades lost bemoan;
  By the edge of those wilds Stonewall had charged-
  But the year and the Man were gone.

  Herman Melville

  Dream, War, Gun

  Herman Melville, Douglas Robillard (2000). “The Poems of Herman Melville”, p.102, Kent State University Press

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• I am now considered such a monster, that I hesitate to darken with my shadow, the doors of those I love, lest I should bring upon them misfortune.

  Robert E. Lee

  War, Doors, Shadow

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• Well, it is all over now. The battle is lost, and many of us are prisoners, many are dead, many wounded, bleeding and dying. Your Soldier lives and mourns and but for you, my darling, he would rather, a million times rather, be back there with his dead, to sleep for all time in an unknown grave.

  George Pickett

  Military, War, Sleep

  George Edward Pickett, La Salle Corbell Pickett (1913). “The Heart of a Soldier: As Revealed in the Intimate Letters of Genl. George E. Pickett”

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• In the name of the constitution of Texas, which has been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her.

  Sam Houston

  Texas, Names, Constitution

  Sam Houston (1943). “The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813-1863: 1825-1863”

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• Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn't every war fought between men, between brothers?

  Victor Hugo

  Brother, War, Mean

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• If I owned Texas and Hell, I'd rent out Texas and live in Hell.

  Philip Sheridan

  War, Texas, Hell

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• Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Prayer, War, Men

  Second Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1865

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• Sending armies to McClellan is like shoveling fleas across a barnyard, not half of them get there.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Army, Half

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• My Dear McClellan, if you don't want to use the army I should like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Funny, War, Humor

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• I am not in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Office, Favors

  Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Charleston, Ill., 18 Sept. 1858

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• Tennessee will not furnish a single man for coercion, but fifty thousand, if necessary, for the defense of our rights, or those of our Southern brethren.

  Isham G. Harris

  War, Men, Rights

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• I can anticipate no greater calamity for the country than the dissolution of the Union. It would be an accumulation of all the evils we complain of, and I am willing to sacrifice everything but honor for its preservation.

  Robert E. Lee

  Country, War, Sacrifice

  Letter to his son, G. W. Custis Lee, January 23, 1861.

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• [John Brown's] zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light, his was as the burning sun... I could speak for the slave. John Brown could fight for the slave.

  Frederick Douglass

  War, Light, Government

  Frederick Douglass' Lecture on John Brown, memory.loc.gov.

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• Little did I conceive of the greatness of the defeat (at Bull Run), the magnitude of the disaster which it had entailed upon the United States. So short-lived has been the American Union, that men who saw it rise may live to see it fall.

  William Howard Russell

  Running, War, Fall

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• Why do men fight who were born to be brothers?

  James Longstreet

  Brother, War, Fighting

  The New York Times, July 24, 1885.

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