111 Quotes During the Civil War That Still Speak
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was not just fought on battlefields-it was fought in words. From the solemn cadence of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address to the desperate love of a soldier's final letter home, these quotes during the Civil War carry the weight of a nation torn apart and struggling to heal.
Whether you're a student writing an essay, a teacher preparing a lesson, a history enthusiast seeking authentic voices, or someone looking for a meaningful quote for Memorial Day, Juneteenth, or a moment of quiet reflection-this collection is for you.
We understand these words are not mere historical artifacts. They are echoes of real people-fathers, mothers, soldiers, nurses, enslaved people, and presidents-who faced impossible choices and unbearable loss. You'll discover 111 carefully sourced quotes from the Civil War era, organized by theme, with context, dates, and sources. You'll hear from famous figures like Lincoln, Grant, and Lee-but also from often-overlooked voices: women, African Americans, nurses, and ordinary soldiers.
Let's begin with the words that named the crisis-the speeches and writings that made war inevitable.
Table of Contents
- A House Divided: Quotes That Named the Crisis
- The Great Task Remaining: Lincoln's Gettysburg and Second Inaugural
- Voices from the Battlefield: Soldiers and Generals
- The Cause and the Cost: Slavery, Freedom, and Emancipation
- The Home Front and the Human Heart
- Words That Marched: Songs, Poetry, and Memory
- Reconciliation and Healing
- How to Use These Civil War Quotes
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Conclusion: The Unfinished Work
A House Divided: Quotes That Named the Crisis (1858–1861)
The war didn't begin at Fort Sumter. It began in speeches, editorials, and declarations that had been building for decades. Understanding these words helps us see that the conflict was not sudden-it was foreseen, debated, and ultimately unavoidable.
1. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." - Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858
2. "I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free." - Abraham Lincoln, Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858
3. "The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." - Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
4. "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war." - Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
5. "The Union is much older than the Constitution." - Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861
6. "My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery." - Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
7. "If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it." - Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Horace Greeley, August 22, 1862
8. "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present." - Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862
9. "Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history." - Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862
10. "The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation." - Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862
11. "The struggle of today is not altogether for today - it is for a vast future also." - Abraham Lincoln, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862
12. "Our new government is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man." - Alexander H. Stephens, Cornerstone Speech, Savannah, Georgia, March 21, 1861
13. "The new Constitution has put at rest forever all the agitating questions relating to our peculiar institution - African slavery as it exists amongst us." - Alexander H. Stephens, Cornerstone Speech, Savannah, Georgia, March 21, 1861
14. "We have entered upon a career of independence, and it must be inflexibly pursued through many years of controversy with our late associates of the Northern States." - Jefferson Davis, Inaugural Address, Montgomery, Alabama, February 18, 1861
15. "It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States must and will, sooner or later, become either entirely a slaveholding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation." - William H. Seward, Speech at Rochester, New York, October 25, 1858
16. "The present struggle between the South and North is nothing but a struggle between two social systems, the system of slavery and the system of free labour." - Karl Marx, "The North American Civil War," Die Presse, 1861
17. "From the commencement of the titanic American strife the workingmen of Europe felt instinctively that the star-spangled banner carried the destiny of their class." - Address of the International Workingmen's Association to Abraham Lincoln, 1864
18. "Our Federal Union - it must be preserved." - Andrew Jackson, Toast at the Jefferson Day Dinner, Washington, D.C., April 13, 1830
19. "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!" - Daniel Webster, Second Reply to Hayne, U.S. Senate, January 26, 1830
20. "I am in earnest - I will not equivocate - I will not excuse - I will not retreat a single inch - and I will be heard." - William Lloyd Garrison, The Liberator, January 1, 1831
The Great Task Remaining: Lincoln's Gettysburg and Second Inaugural
Lincoln's words at Gettysburg and his Second Inaugural Address stand as the war's most enduring oratory. They redefined the nation's purpose and offered a vision of reconciliation that still resonates today.
21. "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
22. "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, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
23. "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
24. "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
25. "The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
26. "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
27. "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
28. "That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
29. "Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863
30. "Standing beneath this serene sky, overlooking these broad fields now reposing from the labors of the waning year, the mighty Alleghenies dimly towering before us, the graves of our brethren beneath our feet…" - Edward Everett, Oration at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863
31. "Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came." - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
32. "Fondly do we hope - fervently do we pray - that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away." - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
33. "The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither has been answered fully." - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
34. "Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword…" - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
35. "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in." - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
36. "…to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan - to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
37. "As was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'" - Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865
38. "I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go." - Abraham Lincoln, as recalled by Noah Brooks, 1864
39. "The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong." - Abraham Lincoln, Meditation on the Divine Will, September 2, 1862
Voices from the Battlefield: Soldiers and Generals
Behind every strategy and order were men who faced the brutal reality of combat. These Civil War quotes from generals and soldiers reveal the courage, pragmatism, and tragedy of those who fought.
40. "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." - Ulysses S. Grant, to Simon Bolivar Buckner, Fort Donelson, February 16, 1862
41. "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 [attributed]
42. "In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins." - Ulysses S. Grant [attributed]
43. "I can't spare this man; he fights." - Abraham Lincoln, on Ulysses S. Grant [attributed]
44. "It is well that war is so terrible - otherwise we would grow too fond of it." - Robert E. Lee, to James Longstreet at Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862
45. "There stands Jackson like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians!" - Brigadier General Barnard E. Bee, First Battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861 [attributed]
46. "Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, last words, May 10, 1863
47. "Never take counsel of your fears." - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson [attributed]
48. "Duty is ours; consequences are God's." - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson [attributed]
49. "You may be whatever you resolve to be." - Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, from his personal notebook [attributed]
50. "Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" - Admiral David Glasgow Farragut, Battle of Mobile Bay, August 5, 1864
51. "Get there first with the most men." - Nathan Bedford Forrest [attributed]
52. "War means fighting, and fighting means killing." - Nathan Bedford Forrest [attributed]
53. "General, I have no division." - Major General George E. Pickett, to Robert E. Lee after Pickett's Charge, July 3, 1863 [attributed]
54. "Too bad! Too bad! Oh, too bad!" - Robert E. Lee, on the failure of Pickett's Charge, July 3, 1863 [attributed]
55. "Hold the fort, for I am coming!" - William Tecumseh Sherman, signal message to John M. Corse at Allatoona, Georgia, October 5, 1864
56. "I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy." - William Tecumseh Sherman, Letter, 1864
57. "War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." - William T. Sherman, Letter to James M. Calhoun and others, September 12, 1864
58. "It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arrayed for battle can take that position." - James Longstreet, to Robert E. Lee before Pickett's Charge, as recalled in his memoir
59. "Slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil in any country." - Robert E. Lee, Letter to his wife, Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee, December 27, 1856
The Cause and the Cost: Slavery, Freedom, and Emancipation
At its core, the Civil War was about slavery-and the fight for freedom. These words from Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and others remind us what was truly at stake.
60. "Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letters U.S., let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, and there is no power on earth which can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship." - Frederick Douglass, Address for the Promotion of Colored Enlistments, Philadelphia, July 6, 1863
61. "Men of color, to arms!" - Frederick Douglass, Recruitment Broadside, March 1863
62. "The negro is the key of the situation - the pivot upon which the whole rebellion turns." - Frederick Douglass, Speech, 1863 [attributed]
63. "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." - Frederick Douglass, West India Emancipation Speech, Canandaigua, New York, August 3, 1857
64. "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." - Frederick Douglass, Letter to Gerrit Smith, March 30, 1849
65. "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free." - Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
66. "And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." - Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
67. "I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be free." - Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863
68. "Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery - the greatest material interest of the world." - Mississippi Declaration of Secession, January 9, 1861
69. "A geographical line has been drawn across the Union, and all the States north of that line have united in the election of a man to the high office of President of the United States, whose opinions and purposes are hostile to slavery." - South Carolina Declaration of the Immediate Causes, December 24, 1860
70. "I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passenger." - Harriet Tubman [attributed]
71. "There was one of two things I had a right to: liberty or death. If I could not have one, I would have the other; for no man should take me alive." - Harriet Tubman [attributed]
72. "I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood." - John Brown, Written Note on the Day of His Execution, December 2, 1859
73. "Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood further with the blood of my children and with the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I submit: so let it be done." - John Brown, Speech to the Court, Charles Town, Virginia, November 2, 1859
74. "I learned to handle a musket very well while in the regiment, and could shoot straight and often hit the target." - Susie King Taylor, Reminiscences of My Life in Camp, 1902
75. "Give us a flag, all free without a slave!" - "Give Us a Flag," song attributed to a Black Union soldier, 1863
76. "Remember Fort Pillow!" - Rallying cry of the United States Colored Troops, 1864 [attributed]
77. "If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up again!" - Sojourner Truth, Woman's Rights Convention, Akron, Ohio, 1851
78. "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." - Abraham Lincoln [attributed]
The Home Front and the Human Heart
While armies marched, families waited, nurses healed, and hearts broke. These soldier letters and reflections from women and civilians reveal the emotional toll of the war.
79. "Sarah, my love for you is deathless; it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break." - Sullivan Ballou, Letter to Sarah Ballou, July 14, 1861
80. "I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged; and my courage does not halt or falter." - Sullivan Ballou, Letter to Sarah Ballou, July 14, 1861
81. "The memories of all the blissful moments I have enjoyed with you come crowding over me, and I feel most deeply grateful to God and you, that I have enjoyed them so long." - Sullivan Ballou, Letter to Sarah Ballou, July 14, 1861
82. "If I do not return, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I loved you, nor that when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name." - Sullivan Ballou, Letter to Sarah Ballou, July 14, 1861
83. "But, O Sarah, if the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you." - Sullivan Ballou, Letter to Sarah Ballou, July 14, 1861
84. "In this sad world of ours, sorrow comes to all; and, to the young, it comes with bitterest agony, because it takes them unawares." - Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Fanny McCullough, December 23, 1862
85. "I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." - Abraham Lincoln, Letter to Mrs. Lydia Bixby, November 21, 1864 [authorship debated]
86. "The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone." - Harriet Beecher Stowe, Little Foxes, 1865
87. "I wonder if it be a sin to think slavery a curse to any land?" - Mary Boykin Chesnut, A Diary from Dixie, March 1861
88. "I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them." - Clara Barton [attributed]
89. "This conflict is one thing I've been waiting for. I'm well and strong and young - young enough to go to the front. If I can't be a soldier, I'll help soldiers." - Clara Barton [attributed]
90. "I sprang out of bed, and found in the dimness an old stump of a pen which I remembered to have used the day before. I scrawled the verses almost without looking at the paper." - Julia Ward Howe, Reminiscences, 1899
91. "These hospitals, so different from all others - these thousands, and tens and twenties of thousands of American young men, badly wounded, all sorts of wounds, operated on, pallid with diarrhea, languishing, dying with fever, pneumonia - open a new world somehow to me." - Walt Whitman, Specimen Days, 1882
Words That Marched: Songs, Poetry, and Memory
Music and poetry helped people cope, remember, and hope. These lines from Civil War songs and poems became the soundtrack of a nation at war with itself.
92. "Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord." - Julia Ward Howe, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," February 1862
93. "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored." - Julia Ward Howe, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," February 1862
94. "As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free." - Julia Ward Howe, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," February 1862
95. "In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, with a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me." - Julia Ward Howe, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," February 1862
96. "Rally round the flag, boys, rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom." - George Frederick Root, "The Battle Cry of Freedom," 1862
97. "The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah! Down with the traitor, up with the star." - George F. Root, "The Battle Cry of Freedom," 1862
98. "Tenting to-night, tenting to-night, tenting on the old camp ground." - Walter Kittredge, "Tenting on the Old Camp Ground," 1863
99. "Just before the battle, Mother, I am thinking most of you." - George F. Root, "Just Before the Battle, Mother," 1863
100. "All quiet along the Potomac to-night, save here and there a stray picket is shot as he walks on his beat to and fro." - Ethel Lynn Beers, "The Picket Guard," Harper's Weekly, November 30, 1861
101. "When Johnny comes marching home again, hurrah! hurrah!" - Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore, "When Johnny Comes Marching Home," 1863
102. "I wish I was in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten; look away! look away! look away! Dixie Land." - Daniel Decatur Emmett, "Dixie," 1859
103. "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on." - Anonymous, "John Brown's Body," 1861
104. "Forward to Richmond!" - Horace Greeley, New-York Tribune, June 26, 1861
105. "The real war will never get in the books." - Walt Whitman, Specimen Days, 1882
106. "The dead, the dead, the dead - our dead - or South or North, ours all." - Walt Whitman, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," 1865
Reconciliation and Healing
After the guns fell silent, the work of healing began. These quotes about peace, remembrance, and unity offer hope for a divided nation-and speak to our own time as well.
107. "In great deeds, something abides. On great fields, something stays." - Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Address at Gettysburg, October 3, 1889
108. "Through our great good fortune, in our youth our hearts were touched with fire." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. , Memorial Day Address, May 30, 1884
109. "Now he belongs to the ages." - Edwin M. Stanton, at Lincoln's deathbed, April 15, 1865 [attributed]
110. "Sic semper tyrannis!" - John Wilkes Booth, at Ford's Theatre, April 14, 1865 [attributed]
111. "The war is over - the rebels are our countrymen again." - Ulysses S. Grant, at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865 [attributed]
How to Use These Civil War Quotes
Now that you have these quotes, how can you use them meaningfully?
For Essays and Students: Always cite your sources and provide context. Use quotes to support your arguments, not just decorate them. Consider how a soldier's letter or a nurse's reflection might illuminate a historical event differently than a general's report.
For Social Media and Memorials: Pair quotes with historical images or simple typography. Use hashtags like #CivilWarQuotes, #MemorialDay, or #Juneteenth to connect with others who share your interest.
For Reflection and Prayer: Many of these quotes-especially Lincoln's Second Inaugural and the Emancipation Proclamation-carry deep spiritual weight. They can be used in personal devotion, church services, or memorial ceremonies. If you're looking for more inspiration, explore our collection of Bible quotes about not giving up or our Bible quotes about persecution and hope.
For Teachers: Use these quotes as primary source analysis activities. Ask students to consider: Who said this? Why? What was happening at the time? What might have been left unsaid?
For Volunteers and Community Service: The spirit of sacrifice and service that defined the Civil War era lives on. If you're looking for quotes about giving back, see our collection of volunteer work inspiration and gratitude quotes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the most famous quote from the Civil War?
A: Lincoln's Gettysburg Address contains some of the most famous lines, including "Four score and seven years ago" and "Government of the people, by the people, for the people." These words redefined the nation's purpose and remain central to American identity.
Q: Who said "War is hell"?
A: William Tecumseh Sherman is credited with this phrase, though the exact wording is attributed. His documented statement-"War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it"-captures the same sentiment about the brutal reality of modern warfare.
Q: What are some Civil War prayers?
A: Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address is essentially a prayer, with lines like "Fondly do we hope-fervently do we pray." The Emancipation Proclamation also invokes "the gracious favor of Almighty God." These words offer spiritual depth for reflection and remembrance.
Q: Where can I find Civil War soldier letters?
A: The Library of Congress, National Archives, and state historical societies hold extensive collections. Many letters, like Sullivan Ballou's, have been digitized and are available online.
Q: What did enslaved people say during the Civil War?
A: Voices like Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and Susie King Taylor speak powerfully about the struggle for freedom. Douglass's "Men of color, to arms!" and Tubman's reflections on liberty reveal the courage of those who fought for their own emancipation.
Conclusion: The Unfinished Work
These 111 quotes during the Civil War are more than historical footnotes. They are the voices of a nation's greatest trial-words of courage, grief, hope, and repentance. They remind us that freedom is never free, and that healing requires both justice and mercy.
Choose one quote that speaks to you today. Write it down, meditate on it, or share it with someone who needs encouragement. Dive deeper into the sources linked throughout this article. Use these words to educate, commemorate, or inspire.
As Lincoln said at Gettysburg, "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work." May these words inspire us to continue that work-building a more perfect Union.
Explore more quote collections on Sentimentsource.com, and if you found this article helpful, please share it with a teacher, student, or history lover.
A note on accuracy: Every effort has been made to attribute quotes to documented sources. Entries marked [attributed] are traditional or recollected sayings widely associated with the speaker but not verified in their exact wording from a primary source. The Bixby letter's authorship remains debated among historians.
