Herman Melville

Name: Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War — Notes
Author: Herman Melville

Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

Summary

“Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War — Notes”, published in 1866, is a work by Herman Melville. It explores elements such as Abraham Lincoln, Mosby and cavalry.

Quotes from Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (Herman Melville)

Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

“ Few need be reminded that, by the less intelligent classes of the South, Abraham Lincoln, by nature the most kindly of men, was regarded as a monster wantonly warring upon liberty. He stood for the personification of tyrannic power. Each Union soldier was called a Lincolnite.
Undoubtedly Sherman, in the desolation he inflicted after leaving Atlanta, acted not in contravention of orders; and all, in a military point of view, if by military judged deemed to have been expedient, and nothing can abate General Sherman's shining renown; his claims to it rest on no single campaign. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

“ The gloomy lull of the early part of the winter of 1860-1, seeming big with final disaster to our institutions, affected some minds that believed them to constitute one of the great hopes of mankind, much as the eclipse which came over the promise of the first French Revolution affected kindred natures, throwing them for the time into doubt and misgivings universal. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

“ Certain of Mosby's followers, on the charge of being unlicensed foragers or fighters, being hung by order of a Union cavalry commander, the Partisan promptly retaliated in the woods. In turn, this also was retaliated, it is said. To what extent such deplorable proceedings were carried, it is not easy to learn.
South of the Potamac in Virginia, and within a gallop of the Long Bridge at Washington, is the confine of a country, in some places wild, which throughout the war it was unsafe for a Union man to traverse except with an armed escort. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

“ Some there are whose votes aided in the re-election of Abraham Lincoln, who yet believed, and retain the belief, that General McClellan, to say the least, always proved himself a patriotic and honorable soldier. The feeling which surviving comrades entertain for their late commnder is one which, from its passion, is susceptible of versified representation, and such it receives.
[6] At Antietam Stonewall Jackson led one wing of Lee's army, consequenty sharing that day in whatever may be deemed to have been the fortunes of his superior. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

“ A body of cavalry, starting from camp with the view of breaking up a nest of rangers, and absent say three days, would return with a number of their own forces killed and wounded (ambushed) , without being able to retaliate farther than by foraging on the country, destroying a house or two reported to be haunts of the guerrillas, or capturing non-combatants accused of being secretly active in their behalf.
In the verse the name of Mosby is invested with some of those associations with which the popular mind is familiar. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

“ But if, during the excitement of the conflict, aught was spread abroad tending the unmerited disparagement of the man, it must necessarily die out, though not perhaps without leaving some traces, which may or may not prove enduring. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

“ Young, though a veteran; hardy, intrepid, sensitive in honor, full of engaging qualities, with manly beauty; possessed of genius, a favorite with the army, and with Grant and Sherman. Both Generals have generously acknowledged their professional obligiations to the able engineer and admirable soldier, their subordinate and junior. ”

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Source: Wikisource

Herman Melville, Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War… (1866)

“ Our sharpshooters wanted to pick off the audacious rebel color-bearers, but Colonel Stuart interposed: 'No, no, they're too brave fellows to be killed.'"
[17] According to a report of the Secretary of War, there were on the first day of March, 1865, 965,000 men on the army pay-rolls. Of these, some 200,000— artillery, cavalry, and infantry—made up from the larger portion of the veterans of Grant and Sherman, marched by the President. The total number of Union troops enlisted during the war was 2,668,000. ”

Herman Melville

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