18 quotes
"General Meade has his son as adjutant."
"That's different. Generals can do anything. Nothing quite so much like God on earth as a general on a battlefield."
The Killer Angels (1974)
They are volunteers: last of the great volunteer armies, for the draft is beginning that summer in the North. They have lost faith in their leaders but not in themselves.
The Killer Angels (1974)
The Frenchman may fight for France, but the American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land.
The Killer Angels (1974)
"It's no good trying to get yourself killed, General. The Lord will come for you in His own time."
The Killer Angels (1974)
"It is unbecoming to a soldier, all this book-learning."
The Killer Angels (1974)
Oh, by the way, there's a story going around, do you know? They say that General Lee was asleep, and the army was marching by, and fifteen thousand men went by on tiptoe so as not to wake him.
The Killer Angels (1974)
Honor without intelligence is a disaster. Honor could lose the war.
The Killer Angels (1974)
Men cannot be threatened into the kind of fight they will have to put up to win. They will have to be led.
The Killer Angels (1974)
The man was looking his way, with glasses. Buford waved. You never knew what old friend was out there. The Reb officer took off his hat, bowed formally.
The Killer Angels (1974)
He had forgotten the Cause. When the guns began firing he had forgotten it completely.
The Killer Angels (1974)
"I don't know what else we could have done. Sir, I'm sorry. But it started out as a minor scrap with a few militia and the next thing I know I'm tangling with half the Union Army."
The Killer Angels (1974)
He moved closer to the wall up there, past mounds of bodies, no line any more, just men moving forward at different speeds, stopping to fire, stopping to die, drifting back like leaves blown from the fire ahead.
The Killer Angels (1974)
That night, at supper, someone remarked casually that since the army needed ammunition, wouldn't it be proper for the ammunition factory to stay open on Sunday? Most of the officers agreed that it had not yet come to that.
The Killer Angels (1974)
"If the war goes on-and it will, it will-what else can we do but go on? It is the same question forever, what else can we do? If they fight, we will fight with them. And does it matter after all who wins? Was that ever really the question? Will God ask that question, in the end?"
The Killer Angels (1974)
I was trying to warn you. But... you have no Cause. You and I, we have no Cause. We have only the army. But if a soldier fights only for soldiers, he cannot ever win. It is only the soldiers who die.
The Killer Angels (1974)
But the men marched believing they were behind McClellan. He was the only general Chamberlain had ever seen who was truly loved. The Rebs loved Lee, no doubt of that. And we loved Mac. Chamberlain thought: Two things an officer must do, to lead men. This from old Ames, who never cared about love: You must care for your men's welfare. You must show physical courage.
The Killer Angels (1974)
Just put one man behind a tree. You can hardly see him from two hundred yards away, but he can see you. And shoot. And shoot again. How many men do you think it will take to get to that man behind the tree, in a ditch, defended by cannon, if you have to cross an open field to get him? How many men? Well, I've figured it. At least three. And he'll kill at least two.
The Killer Angels (1974)
"I've been thinking on your theories of defensive war, and look, Pete, if you don't mind the opinion of an aging military genius, just this once? Technically, by God, you're probably right. Hell, you're undoubtable right. This may be a time for defensive war. But, Pete, this aint the army for it. We aren't bred for the defense."
The Killer Angels (1974)