Quotes from our soldiers

[therealUT]

The United States is the beacon light of liberty and freedom to the human race.

I do feel that the liberty of the world is placed in our hands to defend. If we are overcome, then farewell to freedom.

If I do get hurt, I want you to remember that it will be not only for my country and my children but for liberty all over the world that I risked my life. For it liberty should be crushed here, what hope would there be for the cause of human progress anywhere else?

That is the way a man should die. For die he must, and a few years more or less don't make much difference. A man fighting for liberty can realize that he died to save something better than life.

Yes, I will draw their blood and mutilate their dead bodies and help to send their souls to hell.

Thought this one was interesting, especially since it was stated by an East Tennessee soldier.

There is nothing pleasant about soldiering but I can endure its privations. For there is a big idea which is at stake, the principles of liberty and justice. I have had quite enough of this kind of life, yet the thought that we are doing what is right makes it easily borne.

Any and all thoughts on these quotes is encouraged.

 

[OWB]

Sounds like a dedicated group to me. I've always said I support the troops, just not the war in Iraq. Regardless of what some think, it's possible to support one and not the other.

It's time to either start bringing the troops home or start sending more over there to finish the job.

 

[therealUT]

Sounds like a dedicated group to me. I've always said I support the troops, just not the war in Iraq. Regardless of what some think, it's possible to support one and not the other.

It's time to either start bringing the troops home or start sending more over there to finish the job.

Being a Virginian, do your regards to such quotes change when I inform you all those quotes were from Union Soldiers during the Civil War?

 

[Lexvol]

Being a Virginian, do your regards to such quotes change when I inform you all those quotes were from Union Soldiers during the Civil War?

The most discouraging thing about that is how articulate they sound. I grew up by Ft. Stewart, and a few of the infantrymen that I knew would not understand half of those quotes. This comment is intended to compare educational standards, and not meant to disparage the servicemen and women.

 

[therealUT]

The most discouraging thing about that is how articulate they sound. I grew up by Ft. Stewart, and a few of the infantrymen that I knew would not understand half of those quotes. This comment is intended to compare educational standards, and not meant to disparage the servicemen and women.

Well, I could throw in some more for you Lex:

For if I can not git Liberty I perfer death.
Georgia Soldier, 1864

I could be at home if it warent for a fiew big rulers who I cannot help but blame for it. These big fighting men cant be got out to fight as easy as to make speaches.
57th North Carolina

It actually done me good to see them laying dead.
21st Mississippi

I am sorry that all those examples are from Confederate soldiers, however, the illiteracy rate among Confederate soldiers was upwards of 20%, Union soldiers around 7 or 8%.

 

[Lexvol]

Well, I could throw in some more for you Lex:
I am sorry that all those examples are from Confederate soldiers, however, the illiteracy rate among Confederate soldiers was upwards of 20%, Union soldiers around 7 or 8%.

No need to apologize. I bet the illiteracy rate from my highschool would come close to 10% in the 80's.

 

[therealUT]

My original point of this thread was to show that the United States has demonstrated, over its history, that it aims for a greater goal of liberty and freedom from oppression of the entire world. Many may question how we achieve that, however, to say that working towards achieving that is a new idea, is historically inaccurate.

 

[vader]

Being a Virginian, do your regards to such quotes change when I inform you all those quotes were from Union Soldiers during the Civil War?

You are a sneaky man!

 

[OWB]

Being a Virginian, do your regards to such quotes change when I inform you all those quotes were from Union Soldiers during the Civil War?

Tricky tricky. No not really.

 

[CSpindizzy]

Many people don't realize how much hatred there was between the sides in that war. Some still are fighting it in their heads. Since all of my family was from the South, I find myself constantly researching it. Funny thing is that although being from the South I had family fighting for the Union anyway.

 

[therealUT]

Many people don't realize how much hatred there was between the sides in that war. Some still are fighting it in their heads. Since all of my family was from the South, I find myself constantly researching it. Funny thing is that although being from the South I had family fighting for the Union anyway.

That is not surprising at all if you family is from East Tennessee/Western North Carolina.

From all the letters, books, and memoirs I have read, there seems to be much greater hatred in the hearts of the Confederate soldiers. This makes sense, due to the fact that they were quite literally fighting for their homes and their land. The only significant push into Northern Territory came in the Gettysburg Campaign, therefore, more Union soldiers tended to fight for 'higher' causes than did most Confederate soldiers.

 

[Jasongivm6]

That is not surprising at all if you family is from East Tennessee/Western North Carolina.

From all the letters, books, and memoirs I have read, there seems to be much greater hatred in the hearts of the Confederate soldiers. This makes sense, due to the fact that they were quite literally fighting for their homes and their land. The only significant push into Northern Territory came in the Gettysburg Campaign, therefore, more Union soldiers tended to fight for 'higher' causes than did most Confederate soldiers.

You wouldn't happen to have a copy of Emmy Lou Harris, Waylon Jennings, and Willie Nelson's "White Mansions" CD, would you?

 

[CSpindizzy]

Actually Northern AL. It's interesting to read about the votes in each state for secession. In northern AL, it was quite rabidly Union but once the war started, most of the men went into hiding. Many had their farms burned and families threatened. Most went into TN once the Union Army came through. Bridgeport and Huntsville were a rallying point as units formed. One of the largest ones was the 1st AL Cavalry and the 1st TN Vidette Cav was not far behind.

It's really hard to find info on this since most people down south who were Unionists were blacklisted after the war. Few told their stories and few scholars in the South put fact or stories to paper. The funny thing in this line of my family is that the son of a Union vet married the daughter of a Confederate vet.

A good read is about the 'state' of Nickajack. Seems there was an attempt to make a pro-Union state out of the non-slavery counties in East TN, N GA, N AL, and West NC.

 

[therealUT]

Actually Northern AL. It's interesting to read about the votes in each state for secession. In northern AL, it was quite rabidly Union but once the war started, most of the men went into hiding. Many had their farms burned and families threatened. Most went into TN once the Union Army came through. Bridgeport and Huntsville were a rallying point as units formed. One of the largest ones was the 1st AL Cavalry and the 1st TN Vidette Cav was not far behind.

It's really hard to find info on this since most people down south who were Unionists were blacklisted after the war. Few told their stories and few scholars in the South put fact or stories to paper. The funny thing in this line of my family is that the son of a Union vet married the daughter of a Confederate vet.

A good read is about the 'state' of Nickajack. Seems there was an attempt to make a pro-Union state out of the non-slavery counties in East TN, N GA, N AL, and West NC.

It is really hard to find info concerning anything, besides battles, concerning the Civil War. Here is one of my favorite quotes addressing this issue:

Had the Michigan sergeant lived to witness the North's retreat from Reconstruction in the 1870s and the South's disfranchisement and formalized segregation of blacks in the 1890s, he might have wondered whether the abolition of slavery had revolutionized anything after all. By the 1890s the road to reunion between men who wore the blue and gray had paved over the issues of slavery and equal rights for freed slaves. Middle-aged veterans in the Grand Army of the Republic and the United Confederate Veterans held joint encampments at which they reminisced about the glorious deeds of their youth. Many of them reached a tacit consensus, which some voiced openly: Confederate soldiers had not fought for slavery; Union soldiers had not fought for its abolition. It had been a tragic war of brothers whose issues were best forgotten in the interests of family reconciliation. In the popular romanticization of the Civil War, the issue of slavery became almost as invisible as black Union veterans at a reunion encampment. Somehow the Civil War became a heroic contest, a sort of grand, if deadly, football game without ideological cause or purpose.

James McPherson, What they fought for, 1861-1865