Favorite Civil war qoutes

[1stvermont]

"How do you like this our coming back into the union"
confederate solider to Pennsylvanian citizen days before Gettysburg


"Hollard to shoot at the ornery son of a bitches and we all let go at them. They may say what they please but goddamit pa it is fun"
union solider writing to father after firing and forcing retreat of confederate soldiers


"Angels went to receive his body from his grave but he was not there, they left very disappointed but upon return to haven, found he had outflanked them and was already there".
northern newspaper about the death of stonewall jackson



"no way sherman will go to hell, he would outflank the devil and get past havens guard"
southern solider about northern general sherman



"General, did you ever hear of Mosby?"
"Yes, have you caught him?"
"He has caught you."
Captain John S. Mosby capturing General E.H. Stoughton, March, 1863


"Oh, I am heartily tired of hearing about what Lee is going to do. Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both of our flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do." - U.S Grant


"There is no doubt we could soon wipe old Sherman off the face of the earth, John, if they'd give me enough men and you enough guns."
Nathan bedford forrest To Captain John Morton, 1864.

“Follow Forrest to the death if it costs 10,000 lives and breaks the Treasury. There will never be peace in Tennessee till Forrest is dead.”
General*William T. Sherman*of the Union Army. As quoted in*May I Quote You, General Forrest?*by Randall Bedwell.



From the movie gods and generals but to good to leave out
general Stonewall jackson checking on the 4 artillery pieces

Jackson- "Sir how are your cannons firing today?
Artillery officer- "Just fine sir, the boys have taken to naming them, Matt,Mark,Luke and John"
Jackson- " Well sir, I do hope that you spread the gospel throughout the enemy wherever you do see them"

[khbynum]

I don't normally use paraphrases, especially in a forum with such learned members, but I can't find an exact source. So...

Col. E. Porter Alexander to Gen. Longstreet, regarding his disposition of artillery on Marye's Heights at Fredericksburg: "General, a chicken could not live on that field when I open."

And while I'm being apocryphal, the captured Rebel, asked by his captors why he fought so hard in such a dubious cause: "I'm fightin' 'cause y'all are down here.".

[Projekt Pasha]

"After the sacrifice of countless millions of treasure and hundreds of thousands of lives, you may win Southern independence if God be not against you, but I doubt it. I tell you that, while I believe with you in the doctrine of states rights, the North is determined to preserve this Union. They are not a fiery, impulsive people as you are, for they live in colder climates. But when they begin to move in a given direction, they move with the steady momentum and perseverance of a mighty avalanche; and what I fear is, they will overwhelm the South. "

Sam Houston, calling it like it was (something I must admit even as a Southerner), April 19, 1861

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"It's this deep, sir".

Captain Custer (Yes, that one) upon having waded out into a river after getting tired of McClellan musing whether it could be forded or not.

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As Union Troops routed at Harrisburg

Banks: Stop, men! Don't you love your country?

Private: We do, by God, and we're trying to get back to it as quick as possible!

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"Why, we shall soon hear that Jefferson Davis has crossed the Long Bridge at the head of a brigade of elephants!"

-Winfield Scott

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"I'll officer you!"

-N.B. Forrest to a Junior officer refusing to help with manual labor and immediately preceeding an epic smackdown

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"I've always thought the Yankees had something to do with it."

-General Pickett on why the charge on the third day at Gettysburg failed.

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"Now therefore, I Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, and in their name do pronounce and declare the said Benjamin F. Butler to be a felon deserving of capital punishment. I do order that he be no longer considered or treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate States of America but as an outlaw and common enemy of mankind, and that in the event of his capture the officer in command of the capturing force do cause him to be immediately executed by hanging; and I do further order that no commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall be released on parole before exchange until the said Butler shall have met with due punishment for his crimes.

And whereas the hostilities waged against this Confederacy by the forces of the United States under the command of said Benjamin F. Butler have borne no resemblance to such warfare as is alone permissible by the rules of international law or the usages of civilization but have been characterized by repeated atrocities and outrages, among the large number of which the following may be cited as examples:

Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and non-combatants, have been confined at hard labor with balls and chains attached to their limbs, and are still so held in dungeons and fortresses. Others have been subjected to a like degrading punishment for selling medicines to the sick soldiers of the Confederacy.

The soldiers of the United States have been invited and encouraged by general orders to insult and outrage the wives, the mothers and the sisters of our citizens.

Helpless women have been torn from their homes and subjected to solitary confinement, some in fortresses and prisons and one especially on an island of barren sand under a tropical sun; have been fed with loathsome rations that had been condemned as unfit for soldiers, and have been exposed to the vilest insults.

Prisoners of war who surrendered to the naval forces of the United States on agreement that they should be released on parole have been seized and kept in close confinement.

Repeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering the inhabitants of the captured city by fines levied and exacted under threat of imprisoning recusants at hard labor with ball and chain.

The entire population of the city of New Orleans have been forced to elect between starvation, by the confiscation of all their property, and taking an oath against conscience to bear allegiance to the invaders of their country.

Egress from the city has been refused to those whose fortitude withstood the test, even to lone and aged women and to helpless children; and after being ejected from their homes and robbed of their property they have been left to starve in the streets or subsist on charity........"

Jefferson Davis, General Order 111 regarding Major General Benjamin "The Beast" "Spoons" Butler.

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"If I killed all the reporters, there'd be news from Hell before breakfast."

-William Tecumseh Sherman

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"one of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army."

General Gordon ('s ALIVE!) on Maj. General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

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"The Army of Northern Virginia was yet far distant, and I had failed to convince its distinguished commander of the fact that I was then fighting Grant's whole army with less than eleven thousand men."

General P.G.T. Bo on holding off 62,000 Federals with 11,000 old men and young boys at Second Petersburg whilst Lee remained convinced the AotP was north of the Rappahannock.

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"If he had a million men he would swear the enemy has two millions, and then he would sit down in the mud and yell for three."

War Secretary Stanton on General McClellan

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[Keeler]

"I knew it was hell in there before I got in, but I was convinced of it when I saw Phil Sheridan with hat in one hand and sword in the other, fighting as if he were the devil incarnate... [I warned Sheridan to] omit the profanity. Remember, the first bullet may send you to eternity... [Sheridan responded] 'I can't help it, general. We must hold this point and my men won't think I'm earnest unless I swear at them like hell.'" -Lovell Rousseau, on the fighting at Stones River's Slaughter Pen.


"The Monitor is no more... what the fire of the enemy failed to do, the elements have accomplished." William F. Keeler, writing on the sinking of the Monitor.


"The mental strain was so great that I saw at that moment the singular effect mentioned, I think, in the life of Goethe on a similar occasion - - the whole landscape for an instant turned slightly red" - Private David L. Thompson, 9th New York Zouaves, writing of Antietam.


"First at Bethel, Farthest to the Front at Gettysburg and Chickamauga, and Last at Appomattox" - North Carolina saying.


''I am glad to see one real American here." -Lee to Ely Samuel Parker, a Seneca Iroqouis, during the surrender ceremony at Appomattox.

"We are all Americans." Parker's response to Lee, as the two shook hands.


"I was not a Wisconsin soldier, and have not been honorably discharged, but at the judgment day I want to be with Wisconsin soldiers." -John Gibbon, responding to an invitation to an 1880 reunion of all honorably discharged Badgers.

[Durk]

It is well that war is so terrible — lest we should grow too fond of it.
R E Lee

[1stvermont]

Great quotes the last few posts,thanks.



“wait a moment major, I 'll bring one from the Yankees yonder” returning little while later “ here's the horse I promised you, major, and a Yankee to boot” [ captured federal officer as well]
Private argyle powell to major Phil Allin upon losing his horse before a charge



In pursuit of routed federals confederate officer yells “Get out of our country, you worthless rascals”
Federal tuns his head and says “Faith and by Jasus an't it that same we're trying to do just as fast as we can”

[1stvermont]

General Jo Shelby to scouts
“Did you see them?”
“Yes general”
“Did you count them?”
“No,General”
“Then, uh, well fight them by heaven”

[1stvermont]

Not a quote but good.

Stonewall jackson had an old negro man who acted in the capacity of a body servant. It has become common remark in the camp that none knows of the generals plans but this old negro. Asked how he became in such confidence of the general

"Lord sir, said he. "Massa never tells me nothing, but the way I knows is this. Massa says his prayers twice a day,morning and night. But if he gets out of bed three times in the night to pray, you see i just commences packing my sack, for i know theres will be the devil to pay the next day"

[veb_yw]

"One war at a time, Gentlemen"

Lincoln when releasing the Confederate representatives Mason and Slidell seized from the British ship Trent

[veb_yw]

"So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war." - Lincoln's reported greeting to Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin

[fred zeppelin]

"I know only two tunes: one of them is 'Yankee Doodle', and the other isn't."

Ulysses S. Grant

[enf91]

A few Oldies by Goodie with some others at the end:

"I say again, they couldn't hit an elephant at this dist-"
John Sedgwick, Spotsylvania Court House

"I wish some of you would tell me the brand of whiskey that Grant drinks. I would like to send a barrel of it to my other generals."
"My dear McClellan. If you don't want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a while. Yours respectfully, A. Lincoln."
Abraham Lincoln

"A great many have the idea that the entire negro race are vastly their inferiors; a few weeks of calm unprejudiced life here would disabuse them I think. I have a more elevated opinion of their abilities than I ever had before. I know that many of them are vastly the superiors of those, many of those, who would condemn them to a life of brutal degradation. "
Charles Augustus Hill

"If you can't feed us, you had better surrender, horrible as the idea is, than suffer this noble army to disgrace themselves by desertion."
A Confederate soldier besieged at Vicksburg to the Confederate commander (1863).