Confederate Quotes and some Yankee words

"You can be whatever you resolve to be."
Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson
1842
"I am with the South in life or in death, in victory or defeat. I never owned a negro and care nothing for them, but these people have been my friends and have stood up to me on all occasions. In addition to this, I believe the North is about to wage a brutal and unholy war on a people who have done them no wrong, in violation of the Constitution and the fundamental principles of the government...We propose no invasion of the North, no attack on them, and only ask to be let alone."
Patrick R. Cleburne
May 1861

"Ours is a just war, a holy cause. The invader must meet the fate he deserves and we must meet him as becomes us, as becomes men."
John Pelham

"They do not know what they say. If it came to a conflict of arms, the war will last at least four years. Northern politicians will not appreciate the determination and pluck of the South, and Southern politicians do not appreciate the numbers, resources, and patient perseverance of the North. Both sides forget that we are all Americans. I foresee that our country will pass through a terrible ordeal, a necessary expiation, perhaps, for our national sins."
Robert E. Lee
May 5, 1861

"War is inevitable, and there is not telling when it will burst around you . . . You have to move and make arrangements to go to some point of safety which you must select. The Mount Vernon plate and pictures ought to be secured. Keep quiet while you remain, and in your preparations . . . May God keep and preserve you and have mercy on all our people."
Robert E/ Lee to his wife,
Mary Anna Custis
May 1861

"With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children and my home."
Robert E. Lee

"Do your duty in all things...You cannot do more; you should never wish to do less."
Robert E. Lee

"You cannot be a true man until you learn to obey."
Robert E. Lee

"I cannot trust a man to control others who cannot control himself."
Robert E. Lee

"Never marry unless you can do so into a family that will enable your children to feel proud of both sides of the house."
Robert E. Lee

"Governor, if I had foreseen the use those people designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in this right hand."
General Robert E. Lee,
August 1870 to
Governor Stockdale of Texas

"...In the good providence of God apparent failure often proves a blessing....My trust is in the mercy and wisdom of a kind Providence, who ordereth all things for our good."
Robert E. Lee

"Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret."
Robert E. Lee

"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)