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Lincoln and McClellan at Antietam in a tent.

“Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigue anything?”

President Abraham Lincoln to Major General George B. McClellan (both pictured above), who had cited tired horses to justify the Army of the Potomac’s lack of activity in the weeks following the battle, October 25, 1862

“I will be in my coffin before I will fight again under your command.”

Nathan Bedford Forrest (below) to fellow Confederate general Joe Wheeler after the latter ordered a failed attack on Fort Donelson in Tennessee in February 1863

Library of Congress, colorized by Mads Madsen of Colorized History

Nathan Bedford Forrest

“I always imagine, when I see a man with his hair so long, that there is a vacancy in his cranium…. But perhaps this is only my prejudice against foppishness and every thing effeminate in men.”

Nurse Kate Cumming, reflecting in her diary on meeting Confederate general Thomas Hindman (below), May 9, 1862

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Thomas Hindman

“I supposed not … for any one who would insult a prisoner is too cowardly to go where there is any danger.”

Union soldier William Merrell, who was captured at the First Battle of Bull Run and taken to a Richmond prison, responding to a local resident who had mocked his condition before admitting he had not been at the battle himself

“I don’t care for John Pope a pinch of owl dung!”

Samuel D. Sturgis to fellow Union general Herman Haupt after learning that his men would have to wait to be moved by train until after other troops destined for Army of Virginia commander John Pope (below) were transported, August 23, 1862

Library of Congress

John Pope