It came to him in the night sometimes with a sudden appalling shock that the boys he was fighting were boys he had grown up with. The war had come as a nightmare in which you chose your nightmare side. Once chosen, you put your head down and went on to win.

Jackson is gone – not entirely gone; Jackson was there today watching, and Ewell sees his eyes – but you cannot blame him for not being Jackson. You must make do with the tools God has given for the job.

General, you may attack’... He gave no further directions... With that word it was out of his hands. It had never really been in his hands at all. And yet his was the responsibility.

The Frenchman may fight for France, but the American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land.

If men were equal in America, all these former Poles and English and Czechs and blacks, then they were equal everywhere, and there was really no such thing as a foreigner; there were only free men and slaves. And so it was not even patriotism but a new faith. The Frenchman may fight for France, but the American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land.

If you are not affected, if you are not hurt by what we do, then you will not do anything to stop it. The war will simply continue.

Then after that I asked this fella what rights he had that we were offendin’, and he said, well, he didn’t know, but he must have some rights he didn’t know nothin’ about.

And so it was not even patriotism but a new faith. The Frenchman may fight for France, but the American fights for mankind, for freedom; for the people, not the land.

This is free ground. All the way from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow. No man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by what your father was. Here you can be something. Here’s a place to build a home. It isn’t the land.

How can they look in the eyes of a man and make a slave of him and then quote the Bible?