Dave > Dave's Quotes

“A full appreciation of this crucial position requires an examination of the Confederate defense on this side of Antietam Creek and a walk across the famous Burnside Bridge to explore the IX Corps’ efforts to cross the span and push up to this high ground and beyond.”
― Carol Reardon, A Field Guide to Antietam: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People

“My first recollection of that day was that early on the morning of September 17, we were all in the cellar with the mattresses off the beds being brought down. I was told I must stay there as there would be a battle. The noise of the battle was plainly heard, the popping of the guns, the rattling of the sabres, and the roaring of the cannon. … Soon General Burnside and his staff rode up to the front porch and dismounted. … I lost all fear of the bullets, and was soon on the porch beside my grandfather.”
― Carol Reardon, A Field Guide to Antietam: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People

“Captain Werner Von Bachelle of the 6th Wisconsin in General John Gibbon’s Iron Brigade, who died on the Hagerstown Pike with his Newfoundland dog at his side, rests here as well.”
― Carol Reardon, A Field Guide to Antietam: Experiencing the Battlefield through Its History, Places, and People

“Brig. Gen. Barnard Bee was compelled to give the order to fall back. Attempting to rally the retreating men, Bee used Gen. Thomas J. Jackson’s newly arrived brigade as an anchor. Pointing to Jackson, Bee shouted, “There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!” Jackson was a tough fighter but also very religious. He exhorted one officer to “pray without ceasing.”
― Charles A. Mills, Civil War Graves of Northern Virginia

“As Franklin temporized, another dispatch arrived from McClellan: “It is important to drive in the enemy in your front, but be cautious in doing it until you have some idea of his force. . . . Thus far our success is complete, but let us follow it up closely, but warily.”2”
― Bradley M. Gottfried, The Maps of Antietam: An Atlas of The Antietam (Sharpsburg) Campaign, Including the Battle of South Mountain, September 2 - 20, 1862

“Pah!” Schulman spat, glowering. “I chased him off. Two days ago I found one of my peons sleeping in the barn when he was supposed to be working, and I woke him with a buggy whip. Pelao snatched the whip away from me and threatened me with it, so I ran him off. Good riddance. I never trusted him anyway. There’s nothing worse than an uppity Chichimeca.”
― Dale Cramer, Paradise Valley

“Their wagon crawled along over gently rolling humps and swells, generally following the dusty valley floor between and around a maze of overlapping ridges. Thin pine and oak forests covered the lower slopes but never quite reached the red-rock ridgetops. Nor were there many trees down in the dry valleys of prairie grass and sage, where the occasional stunted, wind-rustled corn patch of a mestizo farm huddled against the road, or the mangy dogs of a native village ran out to pester the horses. But even in the afternoon when the road began to climb, winding through gaps in the craggy mountains toward the town of Arteaga, Caleb noted that it was a much better and smoother road than the one from Agua Nueva.”
― Dale Cramer, Paradise Valley

“Jah – or at least I know about him. My father knew him well. They fought together at the battle of Zacatecas, the fiercest battle of the war. There is a rumor that my father fell because El Pantera abandoned him at the wrong time. My father, too, was a great warrior.”
― Dale Cramer, Paradise Valley

“salchicha”
― Dale Cramer, Paradise Valley

“She was just too tenderhearted.”
― Dale Cramer, Paradise Valley

“Other than God’s grace, I don’t know. It was just there when I needed it, that’s all.” “You don’t know.” Mary shook her head in quiet amazement. “Well then, it’s a gift. That’s the only explanation.” In her heart Rachel was thrilled and terrified at being filled with a sense not her own. That Gott had given her that sense at the very moment when Emma needed her was indeed a gift.”
― Dale Cramer, Paradise Valley

“Even the actual printing of the final draft fell to her, as her dat doubted that anyone could decipher his herky-jerky farmer’s hand. When she had finished, he signed it.”
― Dale Cramer, Paradise Valley

“Not by power or might, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts,” he said. “A father is never prouder of his children than when they make him a little bit ashamed of himself.”
― Dale Cramer, Paradise Valley

“Moor Green plantation was owned by the extremely cruel Redman Foster. Foster is said to have killed one of his bastard babies by a slave mistress because it was deformed. The outright murder of a slave was illegal, but prosecution of a slave owner would have been difficult.”
― Charles A. Mills, Hidden History of Northern Virginia

“It may have seemed strange to you that a professing Christian father so freely gave you, a Christian son, to enlist in the volunteer service. My reason was that I regarded this as purely a defensive war. A war in defense of our homes and firesides, of our wives and children. Threatened with invasion and subjugation, it seemed to me that nothing was left us but stern resistance or abject submission.”
― Charles A. Mills, Hidden History of Northern Virginia

“After two hours, Emily stood and announced, “Tomorrow afternoon we’ll start a science unit on the edible versus poisonous plants indigenous to this area.”
― Mary Ellis, The Quaker and the Rebel

“Since their arrival, the Amites all but bubbled over with joy to be living in a city instead of on an isolated island.”
― Mary Ellis, The Quaker and the Rebel

“She would breakfast with Mrs. Bennington after her husband left to attend to his medical practice, and they usually shared lunch in the beautiful back garden. Emily’s sole duty was to read to Mrs. Bennington in the afternoon. She poured endless cups of Darjeeling tea and read aloud for long stretches of time. But this was no chore because she loved to hear the words of Sir Walter Scott brought to life.”
― Mary Ellis, The Quaker and the Rebel

“She refilled her cup from the coffee carafe.”
― Mary Ellis, The Quaker and the Rebel

“Sweet as she was, Augusta Bennington always got her way.”
― Mary Ellis, The Quaker and the Rebel

“Suddenly the breeze turned chilly. Crossing her arms over her chest, Emily wished she’d accepted the butler’s offer of a wrap. “I can be useful,” she whispered. “And you, Alexander Hunt, will be useful too.” Emily smiled. At least there’s certainly no chance of me falling in love with you, Mr. Hunt. You don’t possess an ounce of the gumption or conviction of Matthew Norton. You can keep your beautiful manners, expensive clothes, and gracious dancing. I can be coy like your belles if need be, but once I have you in the palm of my hand, you’ll be too smitten to notice a few less people around the place.”
― Mary Ellis, The Quaker and the Rebel

“The Enemy…Means to
Make Trouble in Maryland”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes of the 23rd Ohio, serving for the first time under McClellan, spoke of this in a September 3 letter to his uncle: “General McClellan is undoubtedly a great favorite with [the] men under him.”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“Local farmer John Miller guided Scammon’s march along the loop road, riding forward with his leading regiment, the 23rd Ohio, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes.”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“The cavalry’s fire, combined with canister delivered from Pelham’s two guns, was taking a fearful toll, and it was here, struck on three sides, that the 23rd Ohio suffered its greatest loss. Rutherford Hayes believed the only way out was another charge, but before he could give the order, he felt a “stunning blow” to his left arm and fell to the ground. A bullet struck him just below the elbow. Fearing a severed artery, he had one of his men tie a handkerchief above the wound. “I soon felt weak, faint, and sick at the stomach,” recounted Hayes. However, while lying on the ground some twenty feet behind his line, Hayes said he was comfortable and from there “could form a pretty accurate notion of the way the fighting was going…I could see wounded men staggering or carried to the rear; but I felt sure our men were holding their own.”55”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“Dr. Joseph Webb, the regimental surgeon and brother of Hayes’s wife, Lucy, released the tourniquet and treated the wound while providing the colonel with some brandy and opium. Hayes was later taken by ambulance to Middletown, where in the weeks ahead he recuperated in the home of Jacob Rudy, cared for by Lucy, who had traveled from their Ohio home. With Hayes’s departure, Major James Comly assumed command of the 23rd Ohio.56”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“Arriving at the crest of South Mountain at Fox’s Gap, Sturgis’s men were greeted with the ghastly aftermath of a terrible, savage battle.”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“My Men Were Fighting Like
Tigers. Every Man Was a Hero”
― John David Hoptak, The Battle of South Mountain

“In his deathbed delirium, Jackson had cried out, “Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action . . . Pass the infantry to the front.” These laurels were richly deserved, for Hill was inseparable from Jackson’s string of victories. He effected a system of command and discipline within his division which made it a model within the Army of Northern Virginia. His emphasis on speed led it to become known as the “Light Division,” despite its large size (six brigades).”
― Peter G. Tsouras, Gettysburg: An Alternate History

“With a reputation as a hypochondriac, Hill genuinely suffered from prostatitis, a painful and debilitating infection of the prostate, that would flair up at moments of high stress.”
― Peter G. Tsouras, Gettysburg: An Alternate History