Colonial Campaigns Club (CCC)

Gary McClellan, "The Fighting Parson", asked our opinions recently regarding our choices for great commanders. I'd like to carry on in that vein and ask my esteemed colleagues to submit their favorite quotes associated with military history. Please identify the speaker as well as any interesting circumstances leading to the utterance. I'll start with two of my favs: "Kiss me, Hardy" - Horatio Nelson, as he lay dying at Trafalgar; "Retreat, hell! We just got here!" - US Marine in WWI when ordered to the rear.

"I say, there's something wrong with our bloody ships today" Adm David Beatty at Jutland

"Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!" - Farragut in the Battle of Mobile Bay.

"They couldn't hit an elephant at that range" - Sedgwick seconds before being killed by a Reb sharpshooter at Spotsylvania

Forgot my all-time best, useful in all situations:

"That's perfectly puerile!" - ASJ when realizing that his army was so messed up it would be 48 hours late for the Battle of Shiloh. [:p]

Marechal Foch has 2.5 that I am fond of:

"My center cedes, maneuver impossible, situation excellent. I attack! / My center cedes, my line fall back, situation excellent. I attack!" - Battle of the Marne 1914

or

"Do not tell me that this problem is difficult. If it was not difficult, it would not be a problem."

Since these are my admittedly lame translations here are the originals:

<i>"Mon centre cède, impossible de me mouvoir, situation excellente, j'attaque. / Mon centre cède, ma droite recule, situation excellente. J'attaque."
"Ne me dites pas que ce problème est difficile. S'il n'était pas difficile, ce ne serait pas un problème."</i>

Cox
NJM

That reminds me of another one - Wellington about one of his superiors in the early Peninsula campaign:

"The general has no plan, or even an idea of a plan, nor do I believe he knows the meaning of the word PLAN." [8D]

Dierck, I forgot Sedgewick's quote, thanks for reminding me. There's a statue of him at West Point and I have no end of fun laughing derisively whenever I see it.

Here's another good one: A society matron once asked Genl. Eisenhower "Didn't you serve with Genl. MacArthur?" Ike had been on Mac's staff in the Phillipines before WWII and he answered, "Yes, I studied theatrics under MacArthur for three years".

Or how about the Roman fleet commander who, rowing into battle, asked the augors to foretell the battle results. They cast grain before the sacred chickens (no kidding) in order to read the signs as the chickens pecked. The birds refused the grain, so no prophecy could be made. The commander, hearing this, had the chickens flung overboard yelling, "If they won't eat, then let them drink!" The Romans lost the battle.

You know Dierk, you are going to give poor A.S Johnston poor self esteem [;)]


Hmm...what else

I can't recall it right... but the lil ditty about the Duke of York marching up the hill...

"They wouldn't shoot me in my own county." Michael Collins, as he head out to visit troops in county Cork and try to end the fighting during the Irish civil war. He was killed, some say by his own men, on his way back to Skibereen.

Sarsfield, a Marshall of France, died of wounds received at the battle of Neerwinden in 1693, his last word - "would that it were for Ireland."

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Jack Hipkins</i>
<br />I'll start with two of my favs: "Kiss me, Hardy" - Horatio Nelson, as he lay dying at Trafalgar<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">

Came across this one at lunch:

"I want none of this Nelson business on my quarterdeck." - Farragut

and Churchill on the (Royal) Navy: " ...naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash."

Cox
NJM

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">We are but warriors for the working day. Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirched with rainy marching in the painful field.<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Shakespeare
<i>Henry V</i>

Not sure if this really happened, but in the movie "Waterloo", Ponsonby on his mount sits next to Wellington on the ridge when he takes a ball and says in surprise, "By God Sir, I've been shot!". Typically aloof, Wellington glances over and dryly replies, "By God Sir, so you have." Quite the stiff upper lip old Hooky had there!

Phil

Wellington had several good quotes from Waterloo. His order to the Guards to advance against the French Imperial Guard was, "Up, Guards! Now, Maitland, now's your chance!" During the French artillery bombardment, when his staff showed signs of strain, he remarked, "Hard pounding, this. Let us try who pounds longest."

Of course, these don't even mention some classing Wellington quotes..

"In you face Nappy! Don't you bring that weak .... in my house!"

and

"We bad, we bad!"[:p]

It depends upon my mood what my favorite quote is. Here is a short list.

"I am tired of fighting.... from where the sun now stands, I will fight no more." - Chief Joseph.

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." - Abraham Lincoln

"It is well that war is so terrible - we should grow too fond of it." - Robert E. Lee

"I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country. Then, all this stuf you heard about American not wanting to fight, wanting to stay out of the war is a lot of horse dung. Americans traditionally love to fight. All real Americans love the sting of battle." - George S. Patton

"Us surrender? Aw, nuts!" - Tony McAuliffe

"They first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me -- and by that time there was nobody left to speak up." - Martin Niemöller

"War is hell." - General William Tecumseh Sherman

"I have not yet begun to fight!" - Rear Admiral John Paul Jones

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once."- William Shakespeare