"There was a land of Cavaliers and Cotton Fields called the Old South. Here in this pretty world, Gallantry took its last bow. Here was the last ever to be seen of Knights and their Ladies Fair, of Master and of Slave. Look for it only in books, for it is no more than a dream remembered, a Civilization gone with the wind."
Prologue - Gone With The Wind
"Our country demands all our strength, all our energies. To resist the powerful combination now forming against us will require every man at his place. If victorious, we will have everything to hope for in the future. If defeated, nothing will be left for us to live for."
Robert E. Lee
"The principle for which we contend is bound to reassert it's self, though it may be at another time and in another form."
President Jefferson Davis, C.S.A.
"Nothing fills me with deeper sadness than to see a Southern man apologizing for the defense we made of our inheritance. Our cause was so just, so sacred, that had I known all that has come to pass, had I known what was to be inflicted upon me, all that my country was to suffer, all that our posterity was to endure, I would do it all over again.''
President Jefferson Davis, C.S.A.
''...the contest is not over, the strife is not ended. It has only entered upon a new and enlarged arena.''
President Jefferson Davis, C.S.A., address to the Mississippi legislature in 1881.
"We feel that our cause is just and holy; we protest solemnly in the face of mankind that we desire peace at any sacrifice save that of honour and independence; we ask no conquest, no aggrandizement, no concession of any kind from the States with which we were lately confederated; all we ask is to be let alone; that those who never held power over us shall not now attempt our subjugation by arms."
President Jefferson Davis, C.S.A. - 29 April 1861
"It appears we have appointed our worst generals to command forces, and our most gifted and brilliant to edit newspapers! In fact, I discovered by reading newspapers that these editor/geniuses plainly saw all my strategic defects from the start, yet failed to inform me until it was too late. Accordingly, I'm readily willing to yield my command to these obviously superior intellects, and I'll, in turn, do my best for the Cause by writing editorials - after the fact."
Robert E. Lee, 1863
"Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less."
Robert E. Lee
"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union as established by our forefathers should be preserved and that the government as originally organized should be administered in purity and truth."
Robert E. Lee
"We could have pursued no other course without dishonour. And as sad as the results have been, if it had all to be done over again, we should be compelled to act in precisely the same manner."
Robert E. Lee
"I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ alone for salvation."
Robert E. Lee
Definition of a Gentleman - "The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman. The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly -- the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light. The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others."
Robert E. Lee
"Surrender means that the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy, that our youth will be trained by Northern school teachers; learn from Northern school books their version of the war; and taught to regard our gallant dead as traitors and our maimed veterans as fit subjects of derision."
Gen. Patrick Cleburne, C.S.A.
"Sirs, you have no reason to be ashamed of your Confederate dead; see to it they have no reason to be ashamed of you."
Robert Lewis Dabney, Chaplain for Stonewall Jackson
