Quotes and stories

[Post Hoc]

Just a thread about good quotes and stories from the civil war era. From soldiers, politicians, commanders, etc.

Ill start off with a story about Braxton Bragg in the old army:

Bragg as a company commander at a frontier post where he also served as quartermaster. He submitted a requisition for supplies for his company, then as quartermaster declined to fill it As company commander, he resubmitted the requisition, giving additional reasons for his requirements, but as the quartermaster he denied the request again. Realizing that he was at a personal impasse, he referred the matter to the post commandant, who exclaimed, "My God, Mr. Bragg, you have quarreled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarreling with yourself!"

Gets me laughing everytime.

[AUG351]

I like reading battle quotes as well because its the best way to get a bit of understanding of what these battles were really like to fight in. Theres also memoirs like Co. Aytch by Sam Watkins which is a great book if you havn't read it. He really writes from the average soldiers perspective or as he calls it "The Side Show of the Big Show".

Here is a good site called Antietam Voices that has tons of quotes from memoirs, letters, and diaries of the battles of Antietam. http://jarosebrock.wordpress.com/mar...the-cornfield/
http://jarosebrock.wordpress.com/mar...e-sunken-road/

I also have a book Eyewitness to the Battle of Shiloh. Here is an account from the Hornets Nest, Hurdle, 6th Tennessee, Stephen's Brigade: "Then came an incessant storm of lead and iron until our lines were strewn with dead and wounded. The remainder had to lie down for protection. In a few moments a Mississippi regiment dashed up, and as they passed over our line, called: Get out of the way Tennessee and let Mississippi in!' They passed on for a short distance and returned on double quick, and as they passed a Mississippi fellow said: get out of the way, Tennessee, and let Mississippi out!' "

[Minas Moth]

great stuff guys... I really enjoy this... keep it up

[austin.weathers]

During the Battle of Spotsylvania on May 9, 1864, Union general John Sedgwick noticed some of his artillery troops ducking at what he considered to be pot shots being taken at them by Confederate sharpshooters some 1000 yards away.

Trying to spur them on, he lifted himself in his reigns and said, "What? Men dodging this way for single bullets? What will you do when they open fire along the whole line? I'm ashamed of you! They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!" His men continued to cower, so he said again, "I am ashamed of you, dodging that way! They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance!"

While the Confederates couldn't hit an elephant that day, they could hit a Corps commanding Major General. As soon as Sedgwick finished his sentence, he fell dead with a bullet hole below his left eye.

Upon hearing of his death, Lt. Gen. Ulysses Grant asked, "is he really dead!?"

[shokh]

Nice thread. Some things here may find the way into a future version of ACW.

[Post Hoc]

"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

And another Bragg one...

"I know Mr. Davis thinks he can do a great many things other men would hesitate to attempt. For instance, he tried to do what God failed to do. He tried to make a soldier of Braxton Bragg..." General Joseph E. Johnston

[austin.weathers]

"My plans are perfect, and when I start to carry them out, may God have mercy on Bobby Lee, for I shall have none."
General Joe Hooker

"A chicken could not live on that field when we open on it."
Porter Alexander on the Confederate artillery preparations for the Battle of Fredericksburg

"I never admired and did not imitate the example of the commander who declined the advantage of the first fire. But, while I conducted war on the theory that the end of it is to secure peace by the destruction of the resources of the enemy, with as small a loss as possible to my own side, there is no authenicated act of mine which is not perfectly in accordance with approved military usage."
John Mosby on war

[Fredster30]

I have a story that was re-told by the late and venerable ACW author Shelby Foote.

In a typical vignette, he [Foote] told about a rabbit that popped up in a field during Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg and bounded through the Confederate carnage toward the rear. A Rebel glimpsed it, the writer related with a little chuckle, and called out: "Run, old hare! If I was an old hare I'd run, too."

[Ad Hominem]

"We talked the matter over and could have settled the war in thirty minutes had it been left to us."

- A rebel soldier after fraternizing with a Union soldier between the lines.


“General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know as well as anyone what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no 15,000 men ever arrayed for battle can take that position.”

—James Longstreet July 3, 1863.