“I’m a little sorry…”
“I’m a little sorry I wasn’t wounded in front; it looks cowardly to be hit in the back, but I obeyed orders, and it don’t matter in the end, I know.”
– John, a dying Union soldier at Fredericksburg; as quoted by Louisa May Alcott
I was just sitting at my desk here and saw this quote hanging up on my wall. It’s one I kept from a daily Civil War calendar. It shows a lot of humility, and a lot of courage. And a willingness to accept. And it’s terribly sad – horribly sad.
Image: Library of Congress; Burying the dead on the battlefield of Antietam by Alexander Gardner