American Civil War Quotes - Page 2

• 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.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Hate, Civil War, Rumor

  53 Copy quote

• If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would do that. I have here stated my purpose according to my official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men, everywhere, could be free.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Men, Leaving, Civil War

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 August 1862

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• Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Long, Gettysburg

  Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pa., 19 Nov. 1863

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• It is always good men who do the most harm in the world.

  Henry Adams

  Men, Political, Civil War

  American Heritage magazine, December 1955.

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• Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner- stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery subordination to the superior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new government, is the first, in the history of the world, based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth.

  Alexander H. Stephens

  Philosophical, Men, Race

  Cornerstone Speech, Delivered 21 March 1861, Savannah, Georgia

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• They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist...

  John Sedgwick

  Elephants, Civil War, Dodging Bullets

  Quoted in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (1887 - 1888). This line is popularly said to have been Sedgwick's last words and to have been cut off in the middle of "distance." In fact, this was Sedgwick's second-to-last sentence and was completed before the bullet hit.

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• You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Country, War, Blood

  Said to David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary on December 24, 1860. "The Civil War: A Book of Quotations" by Robert Blaisdell, 2004.

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• On Monday mornings I am dedicated to the proposition that all men are created jerks.

  H. Allen Smith

  Monday, Morning, 4th Of July

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• I was always a friend of southern rights, but an enemy of southern wrongs.

  Benjamin Butler

  War, Rights, History

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• Fondly do we hope, ferverently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Peace, War, Ubuntu

  Second Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1865

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• If the Confederacy fails, there should be written on its tombstone: Died of a Theory.

  Jefferson Davis

  Tombstone, Organization, Political

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• You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Civilization, Madness

  Said to David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary on December 24, 1860. "The Civil War: A Book of Quotations" by Robert Blaisdell, 2004.

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• You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it. Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them?

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Country, War, Mistake

  Said to David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary on December 24, 1860. "The Civil War: A Book of Quotations" by Robert Blaisdell, 2004.

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• **** the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

  David Farragut

  War, Military, Marine

  At the battle of Mobile Bay, 5 August 1864 ('torpedoes' were mines). Capt. A. T. Mahan 'Admiral Farragut' (1892) ch. 10

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• It is rather for us here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Civil War, Tasks, Lasts

  Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pa., 19 Nov. 1863.

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• If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Civil War, Unions, Slave

  Letter to Horace Greeley, 22 Aug. 1862

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• Of the people, by the people, for the people.

  Sun Yat-sen

  4th Of July, Patriotic, Democracies Have

  123 Copy quote

• Care for him who shall have borne the battle

  Abraham Lincoln

  Widows And Orphans, Civil War, Battle

  Second Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1865

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• the better angels of our nature

  Abraham Lincoln

  Angel, Civil War, Apocalypse

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1861

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• With firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Military, Giving, Civil War

  Second Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1865

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• We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word many mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name - liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names - liberty and tyranny.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Party, Mean

  Abraham Lincoln (2012). “The Complete Papers And Writings Of Abraham Lincoln (Biographically Annotated Edition)”, p.1338, Jazzybee Verlag

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• The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here so nobly advanced.

  Abraham Lincoln

  War, Unfinished Work, Long

  Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pa., 19 Nov. 1863.

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• I have just read your dispatch about sore-tongued and fatigued horses, Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the Battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?

  Abraham Lincoln

  Horse, War, Army

  Letter to George B. McClellan, 24 Oct. 1862

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• Know what you are talking about.

  Pope John Paul II

  Knowledge, Knowing Jesus, Talking

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• But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or to detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

  Abraham Lincoln

  4th Of July, Men, Long

  Gettysburg Address, Gettysburg, Pa., 19 Nov. 1863.

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