"This is only one among the many proofs I had witnessed of the fact, that the prejudice of color is not nearly so strong in the South as in the North. (In the South) it is not at all uncommon to see the black slaves of both sexes, shake hands with white people when they meet, and interchange friendly personal inquiries; but at the north i do not remember to have witnessed this once; and neither in Boston, New York, or Philadelphia would white persons generally like to be seen shaking hands and talking familiarly with blacks in the streets."Abolitionist James S. Buckingham
"We feel that our cause is just and holy; we protest solemnly in the face of mankind that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honour and independence; we ask no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of any kind from the States with which we were lately confederated; all we ask is to be let alone; that those who never held power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms." President Jefferson Davis - April 29, 1861
"It's bad. It's damned bad." Abraham Lincoln's first reaction to the Union Army's rout at First Manassas
"I failed, I failed, and that is about all that can be said about it. Abraham Lincoln's self-criticism of his famous."Gettysburg Address"
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance" Union General John Sedgwick spoke these words just moments before being shot dead by a confederate sniper at Spotsylvania.
"He looked as though he ought to have been, and was, the monarch of the world." Description of Robert E. Lee
Look at Jackson's brigade! It stands there like a stone wall!Confederate General Barnard E. Bee of South Carolina gave this description of Stonewall Jackson's brigade at First Manassas
"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 describing Stonewall Jackson
"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
"The time for compromise has now passed, and the South is determined to maintain her position, and make all who oppose her smell Southern powder and feel Southern steel!"Jefferson Davis used these words in his inaugural speech on February 16, 1861
"a damned old goggled-eyed snapping turtle" Subordinate officers so described Union General George Meade
"The Rebel army is now the legitimate property of the Army of the Potomac."Joseph Hooker spoke these pompous words shortly before he was soundly defeated by Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville
"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 bring these leaders to trial it will condemn the North, for by the Constitution secession is not rebellion." (I love this quote) Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court privately delivered this opinion on charging captured Confederate officers with treason
"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
"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable, a most sacred right -- a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world. Nor is this right confined to cases in which the whole people of an existing government may choose to exercise it. Any portion of such people, that can, may revolutionize, and make their own of so much of the territory as they inhabit.' Abraham Lincoln, January 12, 1848 speech in Congress (If I'm not mistaken 13 states did this and a war was waged against them, now ain't that something.)
"Robert E. Lee didn't surrender. Grant just stole his sword and Lee was too much of a gentleman to ask him to give it back." Chris Devereaux (a joke)
