War in Literature Gettysburg Day 1

Vocabulary and quotes

Longstreet

"All we have to do is swing around that way- and get between them and Lincoln and find some good high ground, and they'll have to hit us, they'll have to, and we'll have them General, we'll have them!"

Longstreet

"He promised me he would stay on the defensive. He said he would look for a good defensive position and let them try to hit us."

Longstreet

"I have been under the impression that it would be our strategy to conduct a defensive campaign, wherever possible, to keep this army intact."

Longstreet

"If we moved south, toward Washington, we could fight on ground of our choosing."

Longstreet

"It takes a bit more than morale."

cavalier

showing an offhand or carefree disregard; arrogant

cavalry

soldiers on horseback

cupola

a small tower on the top of a building

deployed

moved from marching formation to fighting formation

infantry

soldiers who fight on foot

repeating rifles

rifles that can be fired several times before reloading

seminary

a school for training ministers

**inarticulate**

not able to communicate effectively

**Imperious**

arrogant and domineering

**Picket Line**

a barrier or fortification held by pickets (at the front of the line)

**Hawkish**

aggressive or warlike

**Contemptuous**

showing contempt, scornful

**adjutant**

an assistant, a representative from a higher-ranking officer 

**courier**

messenger

**johnnies**

another name for Rebels 

**Enlistment**

the action of enrollin__g__ or being enrolled in the armed services.

**Rhetoric**

the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositiona__l__ techniques**.**

**Insolently**

in a rude way that does not show respect.

**inside straight**

a poker hand that is very hard to get 

**lee’s Miserables**

a play on Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables (The Miserable Ones), a famous French novel

**Defensive warfare**

preached by soldiers like Longstreet and Buford. Argues that advanced weaponry makes this a necessity to decrease loss of life.

**Waterloo**

alluding to the famous 1 day battle which destroyed Napoleon’s French army. An example of old fashioned combat, head to head against the open field.

**Conscripted**

drafted, forced to enter the army 

**Quixotic**

strange or odd behavior in a noble but hopeless cause

**Court-martial**

a military trial for failure to perform one’s duty 

**squad**

**a small group of soldiers, normally about ten** 

**unbodied**

**ghost-like, not of human origin** 

**repulsed**

**turned back, drove away**

**enveloped**

**having the enemy attacking on both flanks** 

**galling**

**irritating, annoying**

 **indisposition**

**the state of not feeling well, unable to function effectively**

**oration**

**a formal speech** 

**requisitioned**

**demanded without offering payment**

**backwoodsmen**

**term used for pioneers or hunters who lived on the edges of the frontier** 

**moralist**

**one who bases judgments on ideas of right or wrong rather that being practical** 

**disreputable**

**having a bad reputation, not behaving or dressing properly** 

**aide**

**assistant, especially in the military** 

**implements of war**

**all the equipment a soldier needs to fight a battle including weapons**

Lee

“It was a sick gray emptiness he knew too well, that sense of a hole clear through him like the blasted vacancy in the air behind a shell burst, an enormous emptiness” (70).

Lee

“If I do no hear from General Stuart by this evening I will have to send for him” (70).

Lee

“He(Hill) had been a superb division commander, but now he commanded a corps, and it was a brutal military truth that there were men who were... superb with a division but incapable of leading a corps. No way of predicting it”(95).

Lee

“But Jackson is not here.”(97)

Lee

“He knows he has brought this on; he wants to fight now to retrieve it. His answer is to fight, not to think; to fight, pure and simple” (100).

Lee

“He had tried to be discreet, but it was all happening without him, without one decision; it was all in God’s hands” (100).

Lee

“He put his hands down on black dirt, was reminded: Pennsylvania. I am the invader” (101).

Lee

“The enemy is here, General. We did not want the fight but the fight is here. What if I ask this army to retreat?”(107)

Lee

“Docile men do not make great soldiers”(108).

Lee

“If Meade is there tomorrow, I will attack him”(108).

Lee

“When Lee dug trenches around Richmond they call him, derisively, the King of Spades” (128).

Armistead

"Well, I tell you, sir, frankly, my boys are beginning to wonder at the attitude of the 51 high command toward my Division. My boys-" 50

Armistead

"Well, sir, now I don't mean this as a reflection upon you, sir. But well, you know, sir, my Division, my Virginia boys, we weren't at Chancellorsville." 50

Ewell

“I didn’t think it was, ah, practical. We were waiting, ah, for many reasons. We had marched all day, and fought, and your orders were a caution against bringing on a general engagement” (130).

Ewell

“I told him, General Ewell, I said to him, ‘Sir, give me one division and I will take that hill.’ And he said nothing at all. He stood there! He stared at me! I said ‘General Ewell, give me one brigade, and I will take that hill.’ I was becoming disturbed sir. And General Ewell put his arms behind him and blinked. So I said, ‘General, give me one regiment and I will take that hill.’ And he said nothing; he just shook his head, and I threw my sword down.” (134).

Pickett

"Remember what they said when he took command? Called him Old Granny. Hee." 54

Pickett

"Sorry to interrupt, but they're calling for George at the poker table." 51

Chamberlain

“We attacked in the afternoon, just at dusk, and the stone wall was aflame from one end to the other, too much smoke, couldn't see, the attack failed, couldn't withdraw, lay there all night in the dark, in the cold among the wounded and dying. Piled-up bodies in front of you to catch the bullets, using the dead for a shield; remember the sound? Of bullets in dead bodies?”

Chamberlain

“Isn't that amazing? Long marches and no rest, up very early in the morning and asleep late in the rain, and there's a marvelous excitement to it, a joy to wake in the morning and feel the army all around you and see the campfires in the morning and smell the coffee…”

Chamberlain

 “I've told the cook to butcher a steer. Hope you like it near to raw; not much time to cook." Eyes opened wide. He could begin to see the hunger on the faces, like the yellow shine of sickness. He said, "We've got a ways to go today and you'll be coming with us, so you better eat hearty. We're all set for you back in the trees." He saw Glazier Estabrook standing huge armed and peaceful in the shade of a nearby tree. "Glazier," Chamberlain said, "you show these men where to go. You fellas eat up and then I'll come over and hear what you have to say.'' 

Buford

"One thing Lee ain't is a fool, and when our people get here Lee will have the high ground and there'll be the devil to pay." (42)

Buford

"Dismounted, along a ridge, with all night to dig in, the boys could hold for a while." (43)

Buford

“If he’s got any brains at all, and he’s not stupid, he’ll know by now that he’s got a brigade in front of him. Don’t think he’ll wait to get his whole division in line. That would take half the morning.” (85)

Buford

"At Thoroughfare Gap we held for six [hours]. But that was better ground." (51)

Buford

“Though most of [Buford's] life he had resented the appearance of higher command” (87)

Kilrain

“Ah, but. Colonel darlin’, I’ve been in the infantry since before you were born. It’s them first few thousand miles.” (18)

Harrison

“I came through the pickets at night, you know. That can be very touchy”(7).

Harrison

“Your servant, General. May I come down?”(7).

Harrison

“I’ve got the position of the Union Army”(7).

Harrison

“So close I could touch him. It was Reynolds all right”(8).

Harrison

“I smelled it out. Listen, General, I’m good at this business”(8).

Harrison

“Exactly. You didn’t know any of that, now did you, General? You didn’t even know they was on the move, did ye? I thought not. You wouldn’t be spread out so thin if you knowed they was comin’”(8).

Harrison

“General Lee? Do i get to see General Lee? Well now”(9).

Harrison

The name is Harrison, sir, at present. The name of an ex-President, ex-general. A small joke, sir. One must keep one’s sense of humor”(12).