Rebels

“ Remember that it is in the name of freedom that the French rebels have committed the crimes which—which it would consume the night to tell of, and which no one knows better, or abhors more, than yourself. ”

“ That swept the rebels’ strength and pride;
And merely served to whet the scythe
That lately made their columns writhe;
And but postponed the reck’ning day
When they the bill and costs should pay.
For all our well-fought fields attest,
That Right alone by Heaven is blessed;
And that the wrong cannot prevail,
Though hell our Union cause assail. [59]
All efforts us to thwart, subdue,
Recoil upon the rebel crew,
To whom of every hope bereft
That last, sad ditch alone is left! ”

“ The reception of the news of a victory by the rebels, was always an occasion of rejoicing among the Sons and Knights, and in the exuberance of their joy they shouted their treason in all sorts of places, and at all seasons. They assumed to be peace men, and yet were always ready for a quarrel. ”

“ Oh, curs'd rebellion, these are thine,
Thine all these tales of woe;
Shall at thy dire insatiate shrine
Blood never cease to flow?
And now the foe began to lead
His forces to th' attack;
Balls whistling unto balls succeed,
And make the blockhouse crack.
No shot could pass, if you will take
The Gen'ral's word for true;
But 'tis a d——ble mistake,
For ev'ry shot went thro'.
The firmer as the rebels press'd,
The loyal heroes stand;
Virtue had nerv'd each honest breast,
And industry each hand. ”

“ Yet, though many of these rebels seemed not to comprehend the why and the wherefore of their demonstration, there were not a few who looked very much—nay, cruelly—in earnest, who talked vehemently and scowled, and seemed, by the way they gripped their arms, determined to enforce their demands against any man, be he noble, or baron, or king. ”

“ Let rebels feel that we are terribly in earnest. Let heavy blows be struck, and struck without delay, and let there be no exhibition of concession or conciliation, till the enemy sue for peace upon the terms the country proclaims. ”

“ The war cannot be finished by sheets and pillow-cases. Sometimes I am tempted to believe that it cannot be finished till we have flung them all away. When I read of the rebels fighting bare-headed, bare-footed, haggard, and shorn, in rags and filth,—fighting bravely, heroically, successfully,—I am ready to make a burnt-offering of our stacks of clothing. ”

“ The Rebels, as we called them, were every whit as strong as we, and while we enjoyed the advantages of superior position and technology they had the advantage of superior numbers. It was stalemate,—the longest, fiercest stalemate in man's bloody history. ”

“ It was a dangerous mood for one who had sworn allegiance to the King, and taken service under his standard: but I found myself beginning to wonder whether the people whom we were harrying so mercilessly and putting to death with as little compunction as though they had been reptiles instead of hard-working and thrifty folk--as their little farms and houses proved--were rebels in any real sense. ”

“ It was a fearful strife, a most determined battle, fought with a bravery, on both sides, bordering upon desperation. The event was to involve a mighty issue—no less than the fate of a great nation; for the moral effect of a victory by the rebels on the soil of the North would be disastrous, if not fatal, to the loyal cause, while it would open to the half starved and impoverished Confederacy the vast storehouses of wealth of the free North. ”

“ The people, whom they affect to call contemptible rebels, but whose growing power has at least obtained the name of enemies—the people with whom they have engaged this country in war, and against whom they now command our implicit support in every measure of desperate hostility—this people, despised as rebels or acknowledged as enemies, are abetted against you, supplied with military stores, their interests consulted, and their ambassadors entertained, by your inveterate enemy!—and our ministers dare not interpose with dignity or effect. Is this the honour of a great kingdom? ”

“ A rebel who succeeds in his rebellion it not a rebel. These rebels won't. Washington fought for freedom. They are fighting for slavery. How do you expect 'em to win?"
"Anyhow, daddy, if you had to have a rebel," says Dave, "you'd rather have him in a butternut uniform than a blue one?" ”

“ The obloquy may be removed when the work of the rebels is fairly seen, and it may be judged that they deserved better of the State than appeared when they troubled its peace. The rebels of the pen, too, should be worthy of recollection in this age, for they wrought manfully with the weapon now at once so powerful and so popular. The greater men of our series stand out higher as the distance increases. ”

“ The leading rebels, occupying the seats of usurped power in their ephemeral confederacy, have succeeded in arousing and sustaining a considerable feeling of nationality and independence among the masses of their population. Grasping the sceptre of ill-gotten authority with great boldness, they have wielded it with a corresponding energy. ”

“ Imagination may easily paint the distresses when surveying on the one side a proud and potent army flushed with recent success and irritated by opposition from an enemy they despised both as Americans and as rebels. ”

“ So the Government massed soldiers and police here and there—and sat still for that night, fully expecting on the morrow some manifesto from ‘the rebels,’ as they now began to be called, which would give them an opportunity of acting in some way or another. ”

“ It is when we consider precisely the conduct of the Rebels, as represented,—when we read the stories of their atrocities,—when we call to mind the sufferings of our men in their hands,—when we look on the pictures introduced into this discussion, where photographic art has sought to exhibit the living skeletons,—when the whole scene in all its horror is before us, and our souls are filled with unutterable anguish, that we confess how difficult, how absolutely impossible, it is for us to follow this savage example. ”

“ Hidden from the view of their friends in the north by the impenetrable veil which the military operations of the rebels drew around the so-called confederacy, the people knew next to nothing of their career or their sufferings. Thousands died there less heeded even than the hundreds who perish'd on the battlefield. ”

“ Are we to be duped and forestalled in this last hope, so much relied upon as a means of bringing rebels to terms, as we have been in almost every other available means of speedy and honorable settlement? ”

“ The hoe and spade of the rebel slave were hardly less potent for the Rebellion than the rifle and bayonet of the rebel soldier. Slaves sowed and reaped for the rebels, enabling the rebel leaders to fill the wasting ranks of their armies, and feed them. ”

“ A miserable band without education, without arms, without having ever seen service, led by young men, who scarcely know what a sword is, should defeat regular troops and experienced commanders in more than one battle; and, sometimes too, one against four: Is that no miracle? How, if these rebels, for such they are in reality, should desire to found the truth of their doctrine upon this, what have you to oppose against them? ”

“ Suppose these rebels are right--and, dammy, but I think they are--and suppose our King's troops are roundly trouncing them--and I think they are, too--do you mean to say you'd draw sword and go a-prowling, seeking for some obliging enemy to knock you in the head or hang you for a rebel to your neighbor's apple-tree? ”

“ I am to fight the rebels and obey orders.' Cries a general to a subaltern—'Yonder smokes a battery—go and take it.' Do we issue specific instructions to the troops about the women, the children, the chickens, the forage, the mules-persons or property—whom they encounter? The circumstances and the exigencies of the situation determine their conduct. A household mastiff who will pin a rebel by the throat when he passes his kennel, flying from pursuit, is just as serviceable as would prove a loyal bullet sped to the rebel's brain. ”

“ Wherever the rebels met a Christian or a white man he was killed without pity or remorse, and every native who had assisted any such to escape, or was known to have concealed them, was as remorselessly put to death wherever the rebels had the ascendant. And wherever [Pg 178] a European in power, either civil or military, met a rebel in arms, or any native whatever on whom suspicion rested, his shrift was as short and his fate as sure. ”

“ But when one penetrates to the core of the movement in the mind of its chief exponents we find ourselves in a peculiarly pure and stimulating air. The great historical rebels have almost invariably been actuated by a social passion.
Some day perhaps a competent student may give us a work upon the psychology of the rebel. ”

“ To the rebels, knowing the country better than the loyal troops, the movement appeared nearer what it really was, a successful escape from overwhelming difficulties, to a better and more secure position, from which an offensive movement might again be made at an early day, threatening their capital beyond a hope of defence. ”

“ A sort of irregular war was carried on with varied success all over the country; and at last the Government, which at first pretended to ignore the struggle, or treat it as mere rioting, definitely declared for 'the Friends of Order,' and joined to their bands whatsoever of the regular army they could get together, and made a desperate effort to overwhelm 'the rebels,' as they were now once more called, and as indeed they called themselves. ”

“ Even the rebels, detestable as is their cause, and deep as may be their sorrow and repentance when, at a future day, they look back upon the course they have run, even they will at least be able to set up a claim for that measure of esteem which is but seldom denied to courage and valor. ”

“ Kings will be tyrants from policy when subjects are rebels from principle. ”

“ We have only to shake hands with the Rebels, and the past is blotted out. We have only to act as if nothing had happened, and all will be as before something did happen. [Laughter.] This is their promise. I appeal to the people. ”

“ It is true that they fought side by side in the loyal cause with our gallant and patriotic white soldiers, and that, but for their help,--divided as the loyal States were,--the Rebels might have succeeded in breaking up the Union, thereby entailing border wars and troubles of unknown duration and incalculable calamity. ”

“ I said provincial, but if it suits you any better to think of the Americans as rebels, I will not object. We are rebels against tyranny and oppression, as I trust we always shall be. We have several officers of the king’s troops in our hands, and you have some of our men. ”

“ But that our rebels may see that they have not closed your mouths, you may offer a reply to the pretended excuse and cloak of their wicked actions, falsity and disloyalty, whereof you had no information before, it being a thing so horrible, that neither we nor you could have imagined it would have fallen into the thoughts of the said rebels. ”

“ If they do, they write the histories of the revolt, and their leaders become heroes and statesmen. If they fail, the histories are written by their oppressors, and the rebels are portrayed as criminals.
One of the commonest of popular assumptions is that if the rebels have justice on their side, they are bound to succeed in the long run ”

“ The rebels find no open aid North. Covert, treacherous scoundrels, descendants220 of traitors, thieves, and murderers, met, it is true, in secret councils, but soon fell into their earthly hell before the indignant glance of an aroused people. ”

“ When you sink down to die upon the cold, wet ground in winter, exhausted by sickness, borne under by starvation, with the savage blood-hounds baying in the distance, and more savage rebels lying in wait for you; when you lie down to die under these awful conditions, and he”—pointing to the major—“steps between you and the quaking messenger of death, who already has a grip upon you; when he, at the imminent peril of his life, procures food and clothing to restore you; when he has stood over you like an angel, and won back the breath of life to your feeble body ”

“ If you think that Rebels, flushed with success, and scorning their defeated opponents, will come to any practical terms, any terms which will not leave our commerce and all engaged in it victims of outrage, you place trust in their moderation which circumstances thus far do not justify. ”

“ But at present, when an army is sent on any military service, every report that is made of their operations contains an account of a victory, of rebels dispersed at the first encounter, driven from their stations, killed and wounded to a great amount, or to the amount of some thousands, or in short, that the rebels slain were innumerable. ”

“ So that, next to the sin of those who began that Rebellion, theirs must needs be, who either hindred the speedy suppressing of it by Domestick Dissentions, or diverted the Aids, or exasperated the Rebels to the most desperate resolutions and actions, by threatning all extremities, not onely to the known Heads and chiefe incendiaries, but even to the whole Community of that Nation; resolving to destroy Root and Branch, men, women, and children ”

“ Here the pardoned rebels cast themselves down at the feet of the king, confessing their hatred of themselves and the life they had pursued since they departed from his requirements, resolutely declaring their determination henceforth to live lives of obedience and integrity, that they might in some humble degree express their gratitude and love toward him who had been willing to give his life a ransom for theirs. ”

“ The Rebels, represented by their Government, ask for no armistice, except upon their own terms, and what those terms are we have already seen. It is idle to say that there are men at the South who crave peace and a restoration of the Union. ”