United States was at war with itself during the Civil War.
The American Civil War [1861-1865] was a defining event in the US history involving the Union (northern states) and Confederate (southern states) forces.
The main causes included slavery, disputes over state’s rights versus federal authority and differing economic interests.
Additional factors such as the Dred Scott decision, territorial expansion, violence in “Bleeding Kansas,” and the election of Abraham Lincoln, intensified the conflict.
Top 10 Civil War Quotes
Every moment lost is worth the life of a thousand men. ~ Nathan Bedford Forrest.
If there is a worse place than Hell, I am in it. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
The war is over, the rebels are our countrymen again. ~ Ulysses S. Grant.
The soldier who gropes for glory must submit himself to discipline. ~ Sam Houston.
The hen is the wisest of all the animal creation, because she never cackles until the egg is laid. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
The only true rule for cavalry is to follow the enemy as long as he retreats. ~ Stonewall Jackson.
As President, I have no eyes but constitutional eyes; I cannot see you. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the conquest and must conquer or perish. ~ Sam Houston.
The greatest curse that can befall a free people, is civil war. ~ Alexander H. Stephens.
We have but one flag, one country; let us stand together. We may differ in color, but not in sentiment. ~ Nathan Bedford Forrest.
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Best Civil War Quotes
That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
The past is dead. Let it bury its dead, its hopes, and its aspirations before you lie the future, a future full of golden promise. ~ Jefferson Davis.
If you surrender you shall be treated as prisoners of war, but if you have to storm your works you may expect no quarter. ~ Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery, it could not continue. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
Civil wars leave nothing but tombs. ~ Alphonse de Lamartine.
I am greatly obliged to you, and to all who have come forward at the call of their country. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
I believe it to be the duty of everyone to unite in the restoration of the country and the reestablishment of peace and harmony. ~ Robert E. Lee.
In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins. ~ Ulysses S. Grant.
America will not be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedom, it will be because we destroyed ourselves. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
He who does something at the head of one regiment, will eclipse him who does nothing at the head of a hundred. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
We may be annihilated, but we cannot be conquered. ~ Albert Sidney Johnston.
I believe this Government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword. ~ Ulysses S. Grant.
I can assure you that no kingdom has ever had as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ. ~ Baron de Montesquieu.
Famous Civil War Quotes
It was not well to drive men into final corners; at those moments they could all develop teeth and claws. ~ Stephen Crane.
I declare that civil war is inevitable and is near at hand. I predict the civil war which is now at hand will be stubborn and of long duration. ~ Sam Houston.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
There is neither a foreign war nor a civil war; there is only just and unjust war. ~ Victor Hugo.
War means fighting. The business of the soldier is to fight. To move swiftly, strike vigorously, and secure all the fruits of victory is the secret of successful war. ~ Stonewall Jackson.
Our men fought bravely, but the enemy repulsed me. Many valuable lives were lost. Our God was my shield. ~ Stonewall Jackson.
Don’t bring up your sons to detest the United States. Recollect that we form one country now. Abandon all these local animosities, and make your sons Americans. ~ Robert E. Lee.
He felt that in this crisis his laws of life were useless. ~ Stephen Crane.
Duty is ours; consequences are God’s. ~ Stonewall Jackson.
In a civil war, there is continuous fighting, based on grievances that are forever changing. ~ Nuruddin Farah.
When I strike, the bees will begin to swarm, and I want you to help hive them. ~ John H. Brown.
Profound Civil War Quotes
There’s no honorable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war. Except its ending. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
There is no need for bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
The cause of the great war of the rebellion against the United States will have to be attributed to slavery. ~ Ulysses S. Grant.
This fight is against slavery; if we lose it, you will be made free. ~ Nathan Bedford Forrest.
War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over. ~ William Tecumseh Sherman.
A war between Europeans is a civil war. ~ Victor Hugo.
It is easy to see that, under the sharp discipline of the civil war, the nation is beginning a new life. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
Talk is a national institution, but it does not help the slave. ~ John H. Brown.
With one terrible exception, the Civil War, law and the Constitution have kept America whole and free. ~ Anthony Lewis.
Subordination gives strength and security to an army. ~ Sam Houston.
I’ve got no respect for a young man who won’t join the colors. ~ Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Emotional Civil War Quotes
War at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
We must forgive our enemies. I can truly say that not a day has passed since the war began that I have not prayed for them. ~ Robert E. Lee.
My men have sometimes failed to take a position, but to defend one, never! ~ Stonewall Jackson.
It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it. ~ Robert E. Lee.
We are not fighting for slavery. We are fighting for Independence, and that, or extermination, we will have. ~ Jefferson Davis.
To a mankind that recognizes the equality of man everywhere, every war becomes a civil war. ~ Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy.
In the end, no amount of American forces can solve the political differences that lie at the heart of somebody else’s civil war. ~ Barack Obama.
So far from engaging in a war to perpetuate slavery, I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. ~ Robert E. Lee.
The American Civil War produced carnage that has often been thought reserved for the combination of technological proficiency and inhumanity characteristic of a later time. ~ Drew Gilpin Faust.
I began to see during the Civil War, in that part of the states of Missouri and Kansas where the doctors were shut out, the children did not die. ~ Andrew Taylor Still.
Great Civil War Quotes
In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
Civil war? What does that mean? Is there any foreign war? Isn’t every war fought between men, between brothers? ~ Victor Hugo.
I want my army to be an army of the living God. ~ Stonewall Jackson.
It is painful enough to discover with what unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. They do not know its horrors. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon it as the sum of all evils. ~ Stonewall Jackson.
The dominant party cannot reign forever, and truth and justice will prevail at last. ~ Robert E. Lee.
The Civil War defined us as what we are and it opened us to being what we became – good and bad things. It was the crossroads of our being, and it was a hell of a crossroads. ~ Shelby Foote.
The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on. ~ Ulysses S. Grant.
Powerful Civil War Quotes
The power of noble deeds is to be preserved and passed on to the future. ~ Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.
War means fighting, and fighting means killing. ~ Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees. ~ Stonewall Jackson.
I know why we lost the civil war. We must have had the same officials. ~ Bum Phillips.
I have never advocated war except as means of peace, so seek peace, but prepare for war. Because war, war never changes. War is like winter and winter is coming. ~ Ulysses S. Grant.
I will be in my coffin before I will fight again under your command. ~ Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Why do they call them civil wars when they always are so extraordinarily uncivil? ~ Elizabeth Fitch.
The Lord spared the fitten and the rest he seen fitten to die. ~ Abraham Lincoln.
So these were the 76 quotes about Civil War.
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