Like most Rebel soldiers, Sam Watkins owned no slaves.

The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places, from Valverde, New Mexico, and Tullahoma, Tennessee, to St. Albans, Vermont, and Fernandina on the Florida coast. More than 3 million Americans fought in it, and over 600,000 men, 2 percent of the population, died in it.

Soldiers who had been in the army long enough to know what a bloody swindle war really is would begin to feel that army life was really kind of fun, as long as [General Philip] Sheridan was up front.

A certain combination of incompetence and indifference can cause almost as much suffering as the most acute malevolence.

The Confederate Constitution was almost identical to that of the United States.

Shiloh had as many casualties as Waterloo, and yet there were another 20 Waterloos to come.

Our American heritage is greater than any one of us. It can express itself in very homely truths; in the end it can lift up our eyes beyond the glow in the sunset skies.