-- Soldier's Quotes from the War

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"I can only say that I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation"
-- Robert E. Lee spoke these words to his army's chaplains

"Really, Mr. Lincoln, I have had enough of this show business"
-- Ulysses S. Grant used these words to decline to attend a White House party in his honor, so that he may return to the front

"The rebels are out there thicker than fleas on a dog's back!!"
-- An excited Union officer used these words to report the advance of Confederate forces at Shiloh

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"Do you see those colors? Take them!"
-- General Winfield S. Hancock issued this order to the 1st Minnesota on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg, as the Union line was being driven back. The Minnesotans carried out the orders, driving back the Confederates and taking the colors--at a loss of two-thirds of the regiment

"With this honor devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so under God it will sustain you"
-- Abraham Lincoln used these words to confer upon Ulysses S. Grant the rank of lieutenant general--the army's highest rank

"If you don't have my army supplied, and keep it supplied, we'll eat your mules up, sir"
-- William T. Sherman issued this warning to an army quartermaster prior to the departure of Sherman's army from Chattanooga toward Atlanta

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"I can make men follow me to hell"
-- The daring and profane Union General Philip Kearny used these words to evaluate his leadership ability

"There is really no crisis except an artificial one...If the great American people will only keep their temper, on both sides of the line, the trouble will come to an end"
-- Abraham Lincoln made this statement on February 15, 1861, while en-route to his inauguration

"a ****ed old goggled-eyed snapping turtle"
-- Subordinate officers so described Union General George Meade

"Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee River"
-- Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston made this unfulfilled prophecy shortly before the Confederate defeat at Shiloh, which cost Johnston his life

"I know the hole he went in at, but I can't tell you what hole he will come out of"
-- Abraham Lincoln made this remark when asked the destination of Sherman's destructive March to the Sea

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"It's just like shooting squirrels, only these squirrels have guns"
-- A Federal veteran so instructed new recruits in musket drill

"Boys, he's not much for looks, but if we'd had him we wouldn't be caught in this trap"
-- A captured Union soldier described Stonewall Jackson in this way

"Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can, and strike him as hard as you can. And keep moving on!"
-- Ulysses S. Grant's philosophy of war

"a tyrannical, hot-headed vulgarian"
-- A subordinate so described Nathan Bedford Forrest

"That old man...had my division massacred at Gettysburg!"
-- George Pickett said these words to John S. Mosby shortly after paying Lee a visit in Richmond

"Well, it made you famous"
-- Mosby's reply to Pickett

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"Lee's army will be your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also."
-- Newly-appointed Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant gave this order to General George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, upon Grant's arrival in Virginia in 1864.

"General, if you put every [Union soldier] now on the other side of the Potomac on that field to approach me over the same line, I will kill them all before they reach my line."
-- General James Longstreet made this vow to Robert E. Lee as countless Federal assaults were beaten back by Longstreet's men at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

"If you surrender you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if I have to storm your works you may expect no quarter."
-- Nathan Bedford Forrest routinely issued this warning to opposing forces and often received his desired result.

"Every stalk of corn in the northern and greater part of the field was cut as closely as could have been done with a knife, and the slain lay in rows precisely as they stood in their ranks a few minutes before."
-- A Union officer who survived the Battle of Antietam gave this description of the destruction of a Confederate force posted in a cornfield there. "I do not want to make this charge. I do not see how it can succeed. I would not make it now but that General Lee has ordered it and expects it."
-- James Longstreet expressed his reservations about Pickett's Charge to a colleague as his troops moved forward to begin the infamous assault.

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"Whoever saw a dead cavalryman?"
-- Infantry troops often uttered this sarcasm in criticism of the cavalry, who were said to fight so rarely that they seldom left casualties behind.

"If you bring these leaders to trial it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution secession is not rebellion."
-- Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court privately delivered this opinion on charging captured Confederate officers with treason.

"**** it, holler them across." ----General Jubal A. Early's response, meaning attack with the rebel yell, after ordering a charge and being told they were out of ammunition. The charge was successful.

"The dead covered more than five acres of ground about as thickly as they could be laid."
-- A Confederate survivor so described the Union dead at the Battle of Cold Harbor in 1864.


"Hold on with a bull-dog whip and chew and choke as much as possible."
-- Abraham Lincoln offered Ulysses S. Grant this encouragement during the latter's grueling Siege of Petersburg in 1864-65.

"Success and glory are in the advance, disaster and shame lurk in the rear."
-- Union General John Pope made this observation to his troops shortly before his sound defeat at the Battle of Second Manassas.

"It's all a ****ed mess! And our two armies ain't nothing but howling mobs!"
-- A captured Confederate private gave this description of the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864.

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"General, unless he offers us honorable terms, come back and let us fight it out!"
-- James Longstreet said this to Robert E. Lee as he rode off to discuss terms for surrender with General Grant at Appomattox.


"Stand by General Burnside as you have stood by me and all will be well."
-- George McClellan gave this advice to his troops after being replaced by Burnside in November of 1862--one month before the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg.



"I am short a cheek-bone and an ear, but am able to whip all hell yet."-- Union General John M. Corse made this peculiar boast after sustaining a head wound at the Battle of Allatoona in 1864.

"It is a good face. I am glad this war is over at last."
-- Abraham Lincoln spoke these words on the day he was shot when a prankster presented him with a photo of Robert E. Lee.



"I only know two songs. One is Yankee Doodle and the other one isn't." -- General Ulysses S. Grant

"It wasn't a miracle;....It was the infantry!" By who else, the infantry men themselves.

[FSPowers]

My personal favorite:

They couldn't hit an elephant at this distan.........

Union General John Sedgewick as he was hit by a CSA sharpshooter at Spotsylvanis, 1864.

[cof]

On the Rebel yell...... I have never, since I was born, heard so fearful a noise as a rebel yell. It is nothing like a hurrah, but rather a regular wildcat screech

A Federal Surgeon
..... the sweetest music I ever heard.
Gen. Stonewall Jackson

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"Some entire companies and regiments come from sections of the country where
a negro was rarely seen, and they fought against interference in the affairs
of their State, dictation by an alien people, invasion and subjugation of
their country, and against the fear of negro equality in political and
social affairs."
--H.W. Henry, Captain, 22nd Alabama Infantry, CSA