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I should have thought of this sooner, but as you guys are reading up on generals, please let me know if you find any good "flavor quotes" for the game's load screen. We only have about sixty of those, and would love to have more. By now, you have a sense of the sort of quotes I'm looking for -- usually a quote that's not too short (but not too long!) and in some way captures an aspect of combat, leadership, heroism, hardships, politics, etc. So, for example, I probably wouldn't want a quote that says how great a particular general was, but a quote on what makes a good general might be acceptable.

If you don't feel like doing a lot of typing only to see me reject your quote you might want to post or send me just a brief summary saying what sort of a quote it is.

Thanks!

"I cannot do many things that I could do with a trained army. The soldiers know their duty better than the general officers do, and they have fought magnificently. You'll have to do what I do: when a man makes a mistake, I call him to my tent, talk to him, and use the authority of my position to make him do the right thing the next time."
Robert E. Lee to A.P. Hill in May 1864

That's pretty good. But do you know if that was spoken in person, or in a letter? I always give information about the origins of quotes -- what book or speech they're from, or if they're from a letter or diary, etc. etc.

Sorry, the footnote to this quote only says that it was Lee's comment to A.P. Hill, which suggests that they spoke in person.

Okay, that makes sense.

By the way, any quote used has to be verified. When I was putting together the file pre-release I found that a lot of quotes that are attributed to Civil War leaders (and not just Lincoln) cannot be verified, and some are quite suspect. So any quote that is in some way doubtful doesn't make it in. (The one exception is that quote from Patton about growing up in a house with pictures of Lee and Jackson and thinking they're God the Father and God the Son, since that's just too good not to use, and I did write that it's an attributed quote rather than a documented one.)

"The time had come when it was imperative that the skill of generals and the strategy and tactics of war should take the place of muscle against muscle. Our purpose should have been to impair the morale of the Federal army and shake Northern confidence in the Federal leaders."
James Longstreet on the Invasion of Pennsylvania in Battles and the Leaders of the Civil War, reprint of the "War Series" in The Century, the quote is from the article "Lee's Invasion of Pennsylvania", first published in February 1887.

That looks like a good quote for me to use, but I get the sense that a word is missing somewhere. It doesn't read right.

Confederate raider John Mosby wrote of an encounter he and George Pickett had with General Lee in Richmond after the war. Upon leaving Lee's presence, Pickett spoke bitterly of Lee to Mosby saying, "That old man had my division massacred at Gettysburg." Mosby replied, "Well, it made you immortal."

In a moving tribute to friendship, at party held in honor as he left his post with the Union Army to go join the rebellion, Lewis Armistead vowed that if he ever led his men in combat against his dear friend Winfield Hancock, that "God should strike me dead." At Gettysburg, on July 3, 1863 Armistead led his brigade against Hancock's corps to the "High Tide of the Confederacy." Wounded three times as he led his men across the Union breastworks, Armistead fell mortally wounded among the guns of Cushing's Battery.

"I do not question the personal courage of General [Albert Sidney] Johnston, or his ability. But he did not win the distinction predicted for him by many of his friends. He did prove that as a general he was over-estimated." U.S. Grant, Memoirs(p.214)

I like these last three, but they all strike me as more appropriate to bios -- where you've already put the ones for Pickett and Armistead -- than the opening screen. Each one is too specific, whereas the opening screen quotes, even about specific people or events, tend to be more widely applicable.

'War is hell.' WT Sherman, and no doubt many others before and after him, if you don't already have this. Civil War Gens. 2 had Sherman riding in fron of burning buildings in Atlanta. Gets the point across.
 
Chris
 

"Gnl. Gibbon rode down the lines, cool and calm, and in an impassioned voice he said to the men: 'Do not hurry, men, and fire too fast - let them come up close before you fire, and then aim low, and steadily.'"
Lt. Frank A. Haskell in Haskell of Gettysburg: His Life and Civil War Papers on Gen. John Gibbon's preparation for "Pickett's Charge".

"It would nearly end the rebellion if we could actually bag this army, but on the other hand, a severe repulse of us would give them all the prestige at home and abroad which they lost at Gettysburg."

US-Colonel Charles S. Wainwright in his diary during the pursuit of the Army of Northern Virginia on July 11, 1863.

"When congratulated upon his success (of his daring ride around the Union forces around Mechanicsville), General Stuart replied,with a lurking twinkle in his eye, that he had left a general behind him. Asked as to the identity of the unfortunate person, he said, with his joyful laugh, 'General Consternation.'" (from Longstreet's "From Manassas to Appomattox")

I am working on another biography but found a quote by Major Gen. Van Dorn, CSA during the battle of 2nd Corinth Oct 3 (first day), 1862 battle report:
 
[font="times new roman"]Van Dorn in his report says: "One hour more of daylight and victory would have soothed our grief for the loss of the gallant dead who sleep on that lost but not dishonored field."[/font]

Thanks for the suggestions. I see at least one or two that I can use.

While reading up on Pickett's Charge I came across this quote, which I had seen elsewhere but forgotten about. The full quote is way too long to fit in the text box, but the boldfaced part will.

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago. – William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust

[font="times new roman"]quotes related to the Battle of Franklin:[/font]
[font="times new roman"]When we got to the turnpike near Spring Hill, lo! and behold; wonder of wonders! the whole Yankee army had passed during the night. The bird had flown.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]- Confederate Private Sam Watkins, 1st Tennessee Infantry[/font]
[font="times new roman"]I have never seen more intense rage and profound disgust than was expressed by the weary, foot-sore, battle-torn Confederate soldiers when they discovered that their officers had allowed their prey to escape.[/font][font="times new roman"][/font]
[font="times new roman"]- Mississippian Rhett Thomas[/font]

ORIGINAL: shenandoah

[font="times new roman"]quotes related to the Battle of Franklin:[/font]
[font="times new roman"]When we got to the turnpike near Spring Hill, lo! and behold; wonder of wonders! the whole Yankee army had passed during the night. The bird had flown.[/font]
[font="times new roman"]- Confederate Private Sam Watkins, 1st Tennessee Infantry[/font]
[font="times new roman"]I have never seen more intense rage and profound disgust than was expressed by the weary, foot-sore, battle-torn Confederate soldiers when they discovered that their officers had allowed their prey to escape.[/font][font="times new roman"][/font]
[font="times new roman"]- Mississippian Rhett Thomas[/font]

Both are good, but I like the second quote more. Is there more to it? Also, do you have more info on Thomas, such as regiment and/or his rank?

In general, the ideal quote would be a bit longer. The idea is not short quotes so much as longer, more flavorful ones. The second one speaks to the more than occasional incompetence of officers and the effects on morale that their failures had, so it is applicable to the whole war instead of just one battle -- that's also an important criterion for me.

Just found my copy of "Brink of Destruction, A Quotable History of the Civil War" a 240-page book.
Here are a few nuggets:

"No, you dare not make war on cotton. No power on earth dares to make war upon it. Cotton is King!"
South Carolina Sen. John Hammond, 1858

"The leading northern politicians . . . do not believe that there is either courage or strength enough in the south to resist these efforts. . . . Never has there been such an opportunity for secession."
Edmund Ruffin, Dec. 31, 1859

"War means fighting, and fighting means killing."
Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest

"We will fight you to the death. Better to die a thousand deaths than to submit to live under you."
Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood

"I hope God is on our side, but I've got to have Kentucky."
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, April 1861

"Mind what I tell you: You fellows will catch the devil before you get through with this business."
Federal Admiral David Farragut to seceeding Southerners

"The central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy."
U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.

"There is the enemy, and I mean to attack him."
Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863

"If this valley (the Shenandoah) is lost, Virginia is lost."
Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson