“They lived in rural Michigan in the pre-automobile age, and for the most part they had never been fifty miles away from the farm or the dusty village streets; yet once, ages ago, they had been everywhere and had seen… — Bruce Catton Copy Share
“It is recorded that during the long winter after the Battle of Fredericksburg, when the two rival armies were camped on opposite sides of the Rappahannock, with the boys on the opposing picket posts daily swapping coffee for tobacco and… — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image
Beneath everything else, North and West, there ran a profound, unvoiced, almost subconscious conviction that the [American] nation was going to go on growing-in… — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image
What began as a bitter dispute over Union and States' Rights, ended as a struggle over the meaning of freedom in America. At Gettysburg… — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image
And there is the headlight, shining far down the track, glinting off the steel rails that, like all parallel lines, will meet in infinity,… — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image
The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places, from Valverde, New Mexico, and Tullahoma, Tennessee, to St. Albans, Vermont, and Fernandina on the Florida… — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image
Even the most painstaking history is a bridge across an eternal mystery. — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image
Shiloh had as many casualties as Waterloo, and yet there were another 20 Waterloos to come. — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image
“The end of the war was like the beginning, with the army marching down the open road under the spring sky, seeing a far light on the horizon. Many lights had died in the windy dark but far down the road there was always a gleam, and it was as if a legend had been created to express some obscure… — Bruce Catton Copy Share
“Early youth is a baffling time. The present moment is nice but it does not last. Living in it is like waiting in a junction town for the morning limited; the junction may be interesting but some day you will have to leave it and you do not know where the limited will take you. Sooner or later you must… — Bruce Catton Copy Share
Here was the greatest and most moving chapter in American history, a blending of meanness and greatness, an ending and a beginning. It came… — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image
The present moment is nice but it does not last. Living in it is like waiting in a junction town for the morning limited;… — Bruce Catton Copy Share Image