No one agent so much obstructs this army as the degrading vice of drunkenness. Total abstinence would be worth 50,000 men to the armies of the United States. General George McClellan
All the word from all Republicans even on the most local level indicated that Lincoln couldn’t possibly win. The fortunes of war had turned too badly, too sour, for the Union. Stephen B Oates
The Wilderness is probably not the bloodiest battle in the war, but the most terrible battle in the war in many ways. Ed Bearss, historian
John Brown’s soul is marching on with the people after it. George Templeton Strong
Dear Mr President, the tide is setting strongly against us. Two especial causes are assigned to this great reaction in public sentiment: the want of military success at Petersburg and Atlanta, and the impression that we are fighting not for Union but for the abolition of slavery. Henry Jarvis Raymond, chairman Republican National Committee
All quiet along the Potomac to-night
No sound save the rush of the river
While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead –
The picket’s off-duty forever. Ethel Lynn Beers, 1827-1879, The Picket Guard, 1861
It grew dark and we built a fire ... The dead were all around us. Their eyeless skulls seemed to stare steadily at us. Private Frank Wilkerson
We believed that it was most desirable that the North should win. We believed in the principle that the Union is indissoluble. We or many of us at least also believed that the conflict was inevitable and that slavery had lasted long enough. But we equally believed that those who stood against us held just as sacred convictions that were the opposite of ours, and we respected them as every man with a heart must response those who give all for their belief. Oliver Wendell Holmes
We have shared the incommunicable experience of war. We have felt, we still feel, the passion of life to its top. In our youths our hearts were touched with fire. Oliver Wendell Holmes
The enemy throw a number of shells daily into Petersburg, but they do little damage. The women and children seem not to mind them at all. Harry Hammond
It has come that man has no longer an individual existence, but is counted in thousands and measured in miles. Clara Barton
In glades they meet skull after skull
Where pine-cones lay – the rusted gun,
Green shoes full of bones, the mouldering coat
And cuddled up skeleton;
And scores of such. Some start as in dreams,
And comrades lost bemoan;
By the edge of these wilds Stonewall had charged –
But the year and the man were gone. Herman Melville, The Armies of the Wilderness
Grant is a butcher and not fit to be at the head of an army. He loses two men to the enemy’s one. He has no management. No regard for life. I could fight an army as well myself. Mary Lincoln
The Wilderness was a useless battle fought with great loss and no result. Washington Roebling
Dear Mr President, General McClellan has almost ruined your administration and the country. He is a do-nothing. He is thinking of the presidency in ’64. He is placating the rebels. That’s what ails him. Depend upon it. Joseph McDill
Wounded men were brought into our houses and laid side by side in our halls and first-storey rooms. Carpets were so saturated with blood as to be unfit for further use. Walls were blood-stained as well as books that were used for pillows. Jennie McCreary
No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works. Ulysses S Grant
I purpose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer. Ulysses S Grant
I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made. Ulysses S Grant
Dear Julia, I am no longer boss. Ulysses S Grant
The Conscription Act at one foul swoop strikes down the sovereignty of the States, trampled upon the constitutional rights and personal liberty of the citizens, and arms the president with imperial powers. Joseph E Brown, Governor Georgia
More than half a mile their front extends; more than a thousand yards the dull gray masses deploy, man touching man, rank pressing rank, and line supporting line. The red flags wave, their horsemen gallop up and down; the arms of eighteen thousand men, barrel and bayonet, gleam in the sun, a sloping forest of flashing steel. Right on they move, as with one soul, in perfect order, without impediment of ditch, or wall or stream, over ridge and slope, through orchard and meadow, and cornfield, magnificent, grim, irresistible. Lieutenant Frank Haskell
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. Abraham Lincoln, speech on war with Mexico, 1848
As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Abraham Lincoln, August 1858
Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
… With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in: to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. Abraham Lincoln, second inaugural speech 4th Mary 1865
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.