Quotes for All
Disagreeing with the fervent patriotism of the Confederates: I think it’s hard winning a war with words, gentlemen. . . . I’m saying very plainly that the Yankees are better equipped than we. . . . All we’ve got is cotton and slaves, and arrogance. I seem to be spoiling everybody’s brandy and cigars and … Read more
And just think, fellow Southrons, what kind of a Confederate nation we could have, if after independence, politicians abandoned equivocation and spoke honestly and firmly on all issues? If they were to do their duty to God, nation, and people, there would be virtually no need for any form of federal litigation. Charley Reese
There are among us those that would criticize our Confederate ancestors. Would you allow a stranger to come into your house and criticize your little ones? I say it’s not whether we should be ashamed of our fathers and mothers of the Old Confederacy. I say it’s a question of whether they should be ashamed … Read more
If Wild Bill could have made his successful dash into our lines earlier in the day, the attuck would have been made sooner, and greater results might have been expected. The Confederates had suspected him of being a spy for two or three days, and had watched him too closely to allow an opportunity to … Read more
In a landscape littered with all of this imagery about the nobility of the Civil War and the Confederate effort and struggle, the absence of markers says something really powerful. Bryan Stevenson
The landscape in Montgomery and in the South is just saturated with imagery. Markers are everywhere. There’s a marker for the first Confederate post office, there’s a marker for a ball that Robert E. Lee hosted, there’s a marker for where Jefferson Davis had a meeting. We love reminding people about all that was going … Read more
When you come to Montgomery, you see fifty-nine monuments and memorials, all about the Civil War, all about Confederate leaders and generals. We have lionized these people, and we have romanticized their courage and their commitment and their tenacity, and we have completely eliminated the reality that created the Civil War. Bryan Stevenson
The Confederate Constitution was almost identical to that of the United States. Bruce Catton
What a general could do, Thomas did; no more dependable soldier for a moment of crisis existed on the North American continent, or ever did exist… Thomas comes down in history as the Rock of Chickamauga, the great defensive fighter, the man who could never be driven away but who was not much on the … Read more
These men of Law and their confederates … the caterpillars of this Kingdom, who with their uncontrolled exactions and extortions, eat up the free-born people of this Nation. Bathsua Makin