Famous Civil War Quotes
By Craig L. Barry · Originally published March-April 2025 · pp. 2
Who said it?
“He was not going to be badgered of his life, like a kitten chased by boys, he said. It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws.”
“The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became, good and bad things . . . It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads.”
“Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.”
“The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.”
“I see the President almost every day. I see very plainly Abraham Lincoln’s dark brown face with its deep-cut lines, the eyes always to me with a deep latent sadness in the expression. None of the artists or pictures has caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man’s face. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is needed.”
“We have shared the incommunicable experience of war. We felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top. In our youths, our hearts were touched by fire.”
“John Brown’s zeal in the cause of freedom was infinitely superior to mine. Mine was as the taper light; his was as the burning sun. I could live for the slave; John Brown could die for him.”
“War means fighting, and fighting means killing.” “What race of people do you believe make the best soldiers?” He replied, “The Scots who came to this country by way of Ireland. Because they have all the dash of the Irish in taking up a position and all the stubbornness of the Scots in holding it.”
“No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted.”
Answers are found on page 49.
Photographs from the Original Article
Captions and credits appear in the article text as originally printed.