-- Soldier's Quotes from the War

[thea_447]

Union General John Pope made this observation to his troops shortly before his sound defeat at the Battle of Second Manassas.

"Success and glory are in the advance, disaster and shame lurk in the rear".

[unionblue]

"It ain't so hard to get to that ridge--the hell of it is to stay there."

Confederate soldier, Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg.

Unionblue

[johan_steele]

**** you Sir! I don't want a flag of truce I want an American flag! General Force, Battle of Atlanta before being wounded.

[thea_447]

"If this cause, that is dear to my heart, is doomed to fail, I pray heaven may let me fall with it, while my face is toward the enemy and my arm battling for that which I know is right." --Major General Patrick Cleburne, before his fatal wound at the battle of Franklin, Tenn.

[thea_447]

When asked by the secretary of war if he had organized a regiment of "fugitive slaves", Union Brig. Gen. David Hunter, serving on the Carolina coast, replied that he had not, but that he did have "a fine regiment of persons whose late masters are 'fugitive rebels'."

[thea_447]

When asked by Braxton Bragg, "Do you know what a retreat looks like:," one of his men replied, "I ought to know, General, I've been with you during the entire campaign."

During the battle of Chickamauga (19-20 September 1863) an Irishman in the Confederate 10th Tennessee refused to take up the colors, because, "By the holy Saint Patrick, Colonel, there's so much good shooting here, I haven't a minute's time to waste fooling with that thing."

[thea_447]

Informed by a medium that a distinguished Indian chief in the next world wished to speak with him, Lincoln is said to have replied, "I should be happy to hear what his Indian majesty has to say. We have recently had a visitation from our red brethren, and it was the only delegation, black, white, or blue, which did not volunteer some advice about the conduct of the war."

[thea_447]

While touring the trenches at Petersburg one day, Gen. Robert E. Lee found that Brig. Gen. Archibald Gracie, Jr., appeared to be obscuring his view as he indicated points of interest in the Yankee lines, and so remarked "General, you should not expose yourself so much," to which Gracie--who was trying to shield Lee from Union marksmen--replied,"If I should not, General Lee, why should you?" at which Lee smiled and retired to a less exposed position.

[thea_447]

Robert E. Lee's spartan tastes were such that Richard Taylor once remarked, "General Lee was never so uncomfortable as when he was comfortable."

Disapproving a musician's request for leave, Confederate Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill explained that priority for leave was for "shooters, not tooters."

[thea_447]

As a captured Rebel was being taken past a Union artillery park just outside the Petersburg lines in Virginia, he is said to have remarked, "By God, you fellers have almost as many guns marked 'U.S.' as we do."