The Civil War Read online

  —Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, prior to Shiloh

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  O if I was only a man! Then I would don the breeches, and slay them with a will! If some Southern women were in the ranks, they would set the men an example they would not blush to follow!79

  —Southern diarist Sarah Morgan Dawson

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  Retreat? No. I propose to attack at daylight and whip them.80

  —Union General Ulysses S. Grant, to his subordinates, after nearly being defeated in the first day’s battle at Shiloh

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  Now those Yankees were whipped, fairly whipped, and according to all the rules of war they ought to have retreated. But they didn’t.81

  —Confederate soldier Sam Watkins, after the first day of the Battle of Shiloh

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  What I want, and what the people want, is generals who will fight battles and win victories. Grant has done this, and I propose to stand by him.82

  —President Abraham Lincoln, defending Ulysses S. Grant after Shiloh

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  General Grant habitually wears an expression as if he had determined to drive his head through a brick wall and was about to do it.83

  —Union Colonel Theodore Lyman III

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  You may hiss as much as you please, but women will get their rights anyway. You can’t stop us, neither.84

  —Former slave Sojourner Truth to hecklers in a crowd

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  There is nothing on this green earth half so grand as the sight of soldiers moving into action. A cavalry charge is superb; artillery dashing on the field carries you away; while the deadly infantry moving into the jaws of death causes you to hold your breath in admiration.85

  —Confederate soldier William H. Andrews

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  I can’t spare this man. He fights.86

  —President Abraham Lincoln, answering a critic of Ulysses S. Grant

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  His 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 live for the slave; John Brown could die for him.87

  —Abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass

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  Up to the battle of Shiloh, I, as well as thousands of other citizens, believed that the rebellion against the Government would collapse suddenly and soon, if a decisive victory could be gained over any of its armies…[but after] I gave up all idea of saving the Union except by complete conquest.88

  —Union General Ulysses S. Grant

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  Excepting John Brown, of sacred memory, I know of no one who has willingly encountered more perils and hardships to serve our enslaved people than you have. Much that you have done would seem improbable to those who do not know you as I know you.89

  —Abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass, talking to Harriet Tubman

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  Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me unresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield… I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.90

  —Union soldier Sullivan Ballou, in a letter to his wife

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  If we oppose force to force we cannot win, for their resources are greater than ours. We must substitute esprit for numbers.91

  —Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart

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  It is said that Lincoln has called for 500,000 more men. Numbers have now no terror for the Southern people. They are willing to wage the war against quadruple their number.92

  —Confederate War Clerk John B. Jones

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  I have never in my life taken a command into battle and had the slightest desire to come out alive unless I won.93

  —Union General Philip H. Sheridan

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  A series of braver, more desperate charges than those hurled against the troops in the sunken road was never known, and the piles and crosspiles of dead marked a field such as I never saw before or since.94

  —Confederate General James Longstreet, speaking of the Union attack at Fredericksburg

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  The first thing I met was a regiment of the vilest odors that ever assaulted the human nose, and took it by storm…[then] there they were, “our brave boys,” as the papers justly called them, for cowards could hardly have been so riddled with shot and shell, so torn and shattered, nor have borne suffering for which we have no name, with an uncomplaining fortitude, which made one glad to cherish each other as a brother.95

  —Union nurse Louisa May Alcott, describing the wounded from Fredericksburg

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  The enemy is advancing in strong force, I will fight him inch by inch, and if driven into the town I will barricade the streets and hold him back as long as possible.96

  —Union General John Fulton Reynolds

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  I had crossed the line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom, I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in the old cabin quarter, with the old folks, and my brothers and sisters. But to this solemn resolution I came; I was free, and they should be free also; I would make a home for them in the North, and the Lord helping me, I would bring them all there.97

  —Former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman

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  If you don’t have my army supplied, and keep it supplied, we’ll eat your mules up, sir.98

  —Union General William Tecumseh Sherman, talking to a Union quartermaster

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  There will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and a steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they have helped mankind on to this great consummation; while, I fear, there will be some white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it.99

  —President Abraham Lincoln

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  Grief and anxiety kill nearly as many women as men die on the battlefield.100

  —Southern diarist Mary Boykin Chesnut

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  Let danger never turn you aside from the pursuit of honor or the service of your country.101

  —Confederate General Robert E. Lee

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  The sight of several stretchers, each with its legless, armless, or desperately wounded occupant, entering my ward, admonished me that I was there to work, not to wonder or weep; so I corked up my feelings, and returned to the path of duty, which was “rather a hard road to travel,” just then.102

  —Union nurse Louisa May Alcott

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  If it must be, let it come, and when there is no longer a soldier’s arm to raise the Stars and Stripes above our Capitol, may God give me strength to mine.103

  —Union nurse Clara Barton

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  Gentlemen, I know of no better place to die than right here.104

  —Union General George Henry Thomas, at a council of war

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  Indeed in this war more truly than in any other the spirit of lovely woman points the dart, hurls the javelin, ignites the mine, pulls the trigger, draws the lanyard and gives a fiercer truer temper to the blade in far more literal sense than the mere muscular aggressions of man.105

  —Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart

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  We are fighting for independence, and that, or extermination, we will have… We will govern ourselves…if we have to see every Southern plantation sacked, and every Southern city in flames.106

  —Conf
ederate President Jefferson Davis

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  We lost color bearer after color bearer, I picked up the colors three times myself. The flagstaff was shot off and the flag perforated in 19 places by Rebel bullets.107

  —Union Lieutenant Daniel R. Coders, speaking of a Union charge at Gettysburg

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  This year has brought about many changes that at the beginning were or would have been thought impossible. The close of the year finds me a soldier for the cause of my race. May God bless the cause, and enable me in the coming year to forward it on.108

  —Union soldier and free black Christopher A. Fleetwood

  4

  Character

  War, more than anything, brings out the true character of a people. Hatred of the enemy generally grows as the killing and suffering increase, but the American Civil War was unique in that many soldiers had friends and relatives on their adversary’s side. Opposing generals on the battlefield openly admired the courage displayed by their enemies in an attack. Soldiers of rival armies sometimes called informal truces, traded tobacco for coffee, and bantered with their foes.

  The people’s ability to persevere in this “brother’s war” was a result of many character traits—their faith in God, their belief in the righteousness of their cause, and sometimes their sense of humor. Hatred of the enemy was not uncommon in the Civil War, but underlying it was the widespread belief that their antagonists were simply well-meaning, misguided fellow Americans.

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  It is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord’s side.109

  —President Abraham Lincoln

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  My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death. I do not concern myself about that but to be always ready, no matter when it may overtake me. That is the way all men should live, and then all would be equally brave.110

  —Confederate General Stonewall Jackson

  Confederate General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson

  “As a Christian I wouldn’t like to see war, but as a soldier, sir, I would like to see war.”111

  Our opponents finally began lowering their guns, which we took and threw behind us. Then at once we became friends and began a frenzied trading of tobacco for coffee.112

  —Confederate soldier James M. Weiser

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  The rifle and musket balls have been whizzing round our heads so much that we don’t notice them as much as we would a bumble bee at home.113

  —Union Lieutenant Thomas McClure

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  So many men were daily struck in the camp and trenches that men became utterly reckless, passing about where balls were striking as though it was their normal life and making a joke of a narrow escape or a noisy, whistling ball.114

  —Union General David S. Stanley

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  I don’t know but that God has created some one man great enough to comprehend the whole of this stupendous crisis and transaction from beginning to end, and endowed him with sufficient wisdom to manage and direct it. I confess I do not fully understand, and foresee it all. But I am placed here where I am obliged to the best of my poor ability to deal with it.115

  —President Abraham Lincoln

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  You appear much concerned at my attacking on Sunday. I was greatly concerned, too; but…so far as I can see, my course was a wise one…though very distasteful to my feelings; and I hope and pray to our Heavenly Father that I may never again be circumstanced as on that day.116

  —Confederate General Stonewall Jackson, in a letter to his wife

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  Dear Brother, I was astonished to hear from the prisoners that you was colour bearer of the Regmt that assalted the Battrey at this point the other day. When I first heard it I looked over the field for you where I met one of the wounded of your Regt and he told me that he believed you was safe. I was in the Brest work during the whole engagement doing my Best to Beat you but I hope that you and I will never again meet face to face Bitter enemies in the Battle field. But if such should be the case You have but to discharge your deauty to Your caus for I can assure you I will strive to discharge my deauty to my country & my cause.117

  —Confederate soldier James Campbell, writing to his brother Alexander, whom he had fought against at the Battle of Secessionville, South Carolina

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  I can’t die but once.118

  —Former slave and abolitionist Harriet Tubman

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  War ennobles the age. We do not often have a moment of grandeur in these hurried, slipshod lives, but the behavior of the young men has taught us much. We will not again disparage America, now that we have seen what men it will bear.119

  —Ralph Waldo Emerson

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  Lord! What a scramble there’ll be for arms and legs, when we old boys come out of our graves, on Judgment Day: wonder if we shall get our own again? If we do, my leg will have to tramp from Fredericksburg, my arm from here, I suppose, and meet my body, wherever it may be.120

  —A Union sergeant, to nurse Louisa May Alcott

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  The first thing in the morning is drill, then drill, then drill again. Then drill, drill, a little more drill. Then drill, and lastly drill. Between drills, we drill and sometimes stop to eat a little and have a roll call.121

  —Union soldier Oliver Willcox Norton

  * * *

  He [Ulysses S. Grant] had somehow, with all his modesty, the rare faculty of controlling his superiors as well as his subordinates. He outfaced [Secretary of War] 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.122

  —Union General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

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  I have fought against the people of the North because I believed they were seeking to wrest from the South dearest rights. But I have never cherished toward them bitter or vindictive feelings, and have never seen the day when I did not pray for them.123

  —Confederate General Robert E. Lee

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  I must say, and I am proud to say, that I never was treated by anyone with more kindness and cordiality than was shown me by the great and good man, Abraham Lincoln, by the grace of God president of the United States.124

  —Former slave Sojourner Truth

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  Will the slave fight? If any man asks you, tell him no. But if anyone asks you will a Negro fight, tell him yes!125

  —Abolitionist Wendell Phillips

  * * *

  Now it seems strange to me that we do not receive the same pay and rations as the white soldiers. Do we not fill the same ranks? Do we not cover the same space of ground? Do we not take up the same length of ground in a graveyard that others do? The ball does not miss the black man and strike the white, nor the white and strike the black.126

  —Union soldier Edward L. Washington

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  I was never more quickly or more completely put at ease in the presence of a great man, than in that of Abraham Lincoln… I at once felt myself in the presence of an honest man—one whom I could love, honor, and trust without reserve or doubt.127

  —Abolitionist and former slave Frederick Douglass

  * * *

  I had a right to my own political opinions… I am a Southern woman, born with revolutionary blood in my veins… Freedom of speech and of thought were my birthright, guaranteed by our charter of liberty, the Constitution of the United States, and signed and sealed by the blood of our fathers.128

  —Southern spy Rose O’Neal Greenhow

  * * *

  I don’t know how long it has been since my ear has been free from the roll of a drum. It is the music I sleep by, and I love it… I shall remain here while anyone remains, and do whatever comes to my hand. I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and whi
le our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them.129

  —Union nurse Clara Barton

  * * *

  In the very responsible position in which I happen to be placed, being an humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, as I am and as we all are, to work out his great purposes, I have desired that all my works and acts may be according to his will, and that it might be so, I have sought his aid.130

  —President Abraham Lincoln

  * * *

  For a mile up and down the open fields before us the splendid lines of the veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia swept down upon us. Their bearing was magnificent. They came forward with a rush, and how our men did yell, “Come on, Johnny, come on!”131

  —Union General Rufus R. Dawes, of the Iron Brigade

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  If this war has developed some of the most brutal, bestial, and devilish qualities lurking in the human race, it has also shown how much of the angel there is in the best men and women.132

  —Union nurse and writer Mary Ashton Rice Livermore

  * * *

  The brave Union commander, superbly mounted, placed himself in front, while his band cheered them with martial music. I thought, “What a pity to spoil with bullets such a scene of martial beauty.”133

  —Confederate General John Brown Gordon

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  Sherman will never go to Hell. He’ll outflank the Devil and make heaven in spite of the guards.134

  —A Confederate soldier

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  I did not like to stand and be shot at without shooting back.135

  —Twelve-year-old Union drummer boy John Clem, who threw down his drum and picked up a gun in the Battle of Chickamauga

  * * *

  Sherman probably carries a spare tunnel, anyway.136

  —An unimpressed Confederate soldier, upon hearing that Confederate raiders had collapsed a tunnel along Sherman’s supply line

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  Since I am here I have learned and seen more of what the horrors of Slavery was than I ever knew before and I am glad indeed that the signs of the time show towards closing out the accused institution.137

  —Union soldier Marcus M. Spiegel

  * * *

  I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are. If I killed them all there would be news from Hell before breakfast.138