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Quotes
Jul 10, 2006 22:40:26 GMT -5
Post by cyzappa on Jul 10, 2006 22:40:26 GMT -5
I am rewatching the Civil War and this writing/qoute has always stayed with me. "But out of that silence rose new sounds more appalling still; a strange ventriloquism, of which you could not locate the source, a smothered moan, as if a thousand discords were flowing together into a key-note weird, unearthly, terrible to hear and bear, yet startling with its nearness; the writhing concord broken by cries for help, some begging for a drop of water, some calling on God for pity; and some on friendly hands to finish what the enemy had so horribly begun; some with delirious, dreamy voices murmuring loved names, as if the dearest were bending over them; and underneath, all the time, the deep bass note from closed lips too hopeless, or too heroic to articulate their agony...It seemed best to bestow myself between two dead men among the many left there by earlier assaults, and to draw another crosswise for a pillow out of the trampled, blood-soaked sod, pulling the flap of his coat over my face to fend off the chilling winds, and still more chilling, the deep, many voiced moan that overspread the field."
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: 20th Maine, At the end of the first day's fighting at Fredericksburg
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Quotes
Jul 10, 2006 22:50:19 GMT -5
Post by bluestater on Jul 10, 2006 22:50:19 GMT -5
That makes me think of the scene in Gone With the Wind, when Scarlett goes looking for Dr. Mead but finds that the Confederacy had been leveled. The scene starts with the camera focused on Scarlett, but then pans out so that the audience sees her point of view: hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers.
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Quotes
Jul 10, 2006 22:59:08 GMT -5
Post by sgallan on Jul 10, 2006 22:59:08 GMT -5
I second that on the Civil War. It is riveting.
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Quotes
Jul 10, 2006 23:07:43 GMT -5
Post by cyzappa on Jul 10, 2006 23:07:43 GMT -5
Another from the Civil War that stuck Frederick Douglass- In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky-her grand old woods-her fertile fields-her beautiful rivers-her mighty lakes and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked when I remember that all is cursed with the infernal spirit of slave-holding and wrong; When I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten; That her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing.
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Quotes
Jul 10, 2006 23:11:59 GMT -5
Post by sgallan on Jul 10, 2006 23:11:59 GMT -5
A little off-topic, but is there anybody in todays world that is quotable like that? Or has the power of words and oratory been lost to a more visual (and sound bite) medium?
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Quotes
Jul 11, 2006 5:00:18 GMT -5
Post by RYou on Jul 11, 2006 5:00:18 GMT -5
cz - someday find a copy of "The Civil War Diary & Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes", it is sold on Amazon - he is an absolutely incredible writer and a mere private on the front lines.
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tpay
Round of 12
Posts: 356
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Quotes
Jul 11, 2006 5:06:44 GMT -5
Post by tpay on Jul 11, 2006 5:06:44 GMT -5
Not Civil War, but quote none the less.
Although his date of birth is the topic of some debate, by some accounts Satchel Paige would have had his 100th birthday this week. That was reason enough for Kansas City Star columnist Joe Posnanski to recall a few famous lines attributed to the legendary pitcher:
• "My mother always told me if you tell a lie, rehearse it. If it don't sound good to you, it won't sound good to no one else."
• "Don't look back, something might be gaining on you."
• "Dance like no one's watching.
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