Question of the Week: 7/4-7/10/22

In your opinion, what’s the best quote from the Battle of Gettysburg?

(Not the movie quotes.)



21 Responses to Question of the Week: 7/4-7/10/22

  1. Related to the promotions of Custer, Farnsworth sand Merritt from captains to cavalry brigade brig. generals the promotions did not sit well with cavalry division commander Buford. During the movement north to Gettysburg Buford’s men captured a spy who was summarily hung. A group of enraged local citizens confronted Buford who, incensed by the promotions reputedly responded in one of the best lines to come out of the Gettysburg campaign and the Civil War “the man is a spy and I am afraid to send him to Washington because I know the authorities will make him a brigadier general.”

  2. “The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract.” From John Nicolay’s copy of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

  3. “Is this all the men you’ve got? See those colors? Take them! Hancock to the First Minnesota.

  4. “Catholic church refuses Christian burial to the soldier who turns his back upon the foe or deserts his flag”
    Reverend Father William Corby
    Chaplain, 88th NYV

  5. “There’s those damned black-hatters again. Ain’t no militia – it’s the Army of the Potomac!”

  6. Pickett (supposedly) on why the ANV lost at Gettysburg: “I always thought the Union Army had something to do with it”.

    Runner up, because we know this one actually was said: Lt. Col Charles Mudge, 2nd Mass. after being ordered to charge the ANV line on July 3: “It’s murder but it’s the order.”

  7. “The men must see us today.” – Col. Augustus Van Horne Ellis
    “Up men, and to your post. Don’t forget today you are from old Virginia.” Gen. George Pickett

  8. Longstreet’s last attempt to dissuade Lee from ordering Pickett to attack the Federal Line on July 3rd. “General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, by squads, companies, regiments, divisions and armies , and should know as well as anyone what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no 15,000 men ever arrayed for battle can take that position.”

  9. After Pickett’s charge Lee told Pickett to rally his division for a possible Union counterattack, Pickett allegedly replied, “General, I have no division.”

    1. How appropriate to quote Vincent on this day, our county’s celebration of it independence.

  10. after the failed July 3rd assault, while troops were retreating back; Isaac Trimble with a severely wounded leg (later requiring amputation) passing by A.P. Hill on the way to the rear commented “If hell cant be taken by the troops I had the honor to command today, it cant be done at all” (Robertson, 1992, Gen A.P. Hill)

  11. “Major, tell my father I died with my face to the enemy.” -Col. Isaac E. Avery, after being mortally wounded at East Cemetery Hill

  12. General, shall I advance? Pickett to Longstreet on July 3rd, 1863.

    Answered by Longstreet with no response at all, just a bow of his head.

  13. Col. Chamberlain: We’re moving out in a few minutes. We’ll be moving all day. I’ve been ordered to take you men with me, I’m told that — that if you don’t come I can shoot you. Well, you know I won’t do that. Maybe somebody else will, but I won’t. So that’s that.
    Here’s the situation. The whole reb army is up that road aways waiting for us,…

    1. I misread the instructions and thought it was movie quotes. So I desire to take back the above and request it replaced by: “Who can write the history of a battle whose eyes are immovably fastened upon a central figure of transcendingly absorbing interest — the dead body of an oldest born, crushed by a shell in a position where a battery should never have been sent, and abandoned to death in a building where surgeons dared not to stay?” Samuel Wilkeson, newpaper correspondent and father of Lt. Bayard Wilkeson, fatally wounded at Barlow’s Knoll.

      1. No problem Henry!

        You know that certain movie war scenes send a thrill down your spine and I re-play them every so often on YouTube

        From Pearl Harbor….”Army pilots, man your planes”…and then you see the crew rushing out a portal on the flight deck.

        From Gettysburg…”Bayonets!”

        From Disney”s Davey Crockett…When Davey stands alone at the Alamo, swing his musket, Betsy.. ( Even as I am writing this, my eyes tear up)

        From Fort Apache …Colonel Thursday “Still it’s been my impression that Presidential appointments were restricted to sons of holders of the Medal of Honor”
        Sgt. O’Rourke:…That is my impression too, sir.

  14. Although it was not said..I always imagined Gen George Pickett when first arriving and admiring the beautiful field just south of town along the Emmitsburg Rd and saying what a great spot for a Family Style Buffet…

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