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“One cannot describe his feelings during the first night under a tent – the beginning of his real soldier life. There was so much to look forward to, so much to look back upon! Thoughts of separation from home and loved ones, never, perhaps, to be seen again, occupied the mind. All the hopes and ambitions of the young soldier were crowding through the brain, and ending in the one dearest wish to go speedily to the front.”
James I. Robertson, Jr., Soldiers Blue and Gray: p. 47.
“The army camp was the place where the recruit ceased to be a civilian and learned how to become a soldier. He would spend more time in camp than on marches and in battle combined. It was in camp that he was introduced to the mysteries of the army: bugle calls and drum beats, the military chain of command, discipline, the necessity of taking care of equipment, and obedience to orders. He drilled as best he could; he learned something about pitching a tent and using a weapon.”
James I. Robertson, Soldiers Blue and Gray: p. 41.
Some tell us ’tis a burnin shame
To make the naygers fight;
An’ that the thrade of bein’ kilt
Belongs but to the white;
But as for me, upon my soul!
So liberal are we here,
I’ll let Sambo be muthered instead of myself
On every day of the year.
On every day of the eyar, boys,
And in every hour of the day;
The right to be kilt I’ll divide with him,
An’ divil a word I’ll say.
Private Miles O’Reilly
[Charles G. Halpine, NY soldier]
“We are in the beginning of the greatest war that has ever been waged on this continent.” The youths and middle-aged men who became Johnny Rebs and BillyYanks did so because they had been caught up in the heated atmosphere and angry words of the day, or else they had been emotionally moved . . . by swaying oratory, inspiring music, the sight of a flag waving defiantly at some moment. They were going off to war in enthusiastic expectation – in quest of excitement amd accomplishment – never slowed down by any thoughts that war contains hardships and sufferings, and that soldiers often die.
- James I. Robertson, Jr., Soldiers Blue and Gray: p. 18.
“When the new soldiers ‘unslung those corpulent knapsacks, the sense of relief felt by Bunyan’s pilgrim when he dropped his burden. Indeed, it seemed like getting out from under a haystack or a mountain.“
Cited in Soldiers Blue and Gray, Robertson: p. 15.
Men! – if manhood still ye claim,
If the Northern pulse can thrill,
R oused by wrong or stung by shame,
Freely, strong still! -
Let the sounds of traffic die;
Shut the mill-gate — leave the stall –
Fling the ax and hammer by –
Throng to Faneuil Hill.
- Written by John Greenleaf
“As victor exult, or in death be laid low,
With his back to the field and his feet to the foe,
And leaving in battle no blot on his name,
Look proudly to heaven fron the death-bed of fame.”
- Uttered by a Massachussets orator
Cited in Soldiers Ble and Gray, Robertson: pp. 7-8
“If we are conquered we will be driven penniless and dishonored from the land of our birth . . . As I have often said I had rather fall in this cause than to live to see my country dismantled of its glory and independence – for of its honor it cannot be deprived.”
- A Louisianian
“The great event in all our lives has at last come to pass. A war of gigantic proportions, infinite consequences, and indefinite duration is on us, and will affect the interests and happiness of every man, woman, or child, lofty or humble, in this country . . . We cannot shun it, we can not alleviate it, we cannot stop it. We have nothing left now but to fight our way through these troubles . . .”
- John M. Daniel, a Richmond newspaper editor
Quoted in Soldiers Blue and Gray, Robertson: p. 6
“I was a mere boy and carried away by boyish enthusiasm. I was ambitious and felt that I should be disgraced if I remained at home while other boys no older than myself were out fighting . . . I was tormented by feverish anxiety before I joined my regiment for fear the fighting would be over before I got into it.”
- James Cooper, a Tennessee soldier
- Quoted in Soldiers in Blue and Gray, Robertson: p. 5
