Do you see me having tea with Nancy?
Tell me, why on earth should I be interested in having any furthur conversation with you? Other than calling me, and my fathers traitorous scum, you have nothing else to offer.
Men of the valley. Citizen soldiers. I am here at the order of General Robert E. Lee, commanding all Virginia forces. On April 15th of this year of our Lord 1862, Simon Cameron, the secretary of war of the United States sent a telegram to our governor to raise three regiments of infantry to be sent to assist in suppressing the Southern Confederacy.
Governor Letcher's answer is well known to you, but perhaps not his words. His wire to Washington stated: "You have chosen to inaugurate civil war. Having done so, we will meet you in a spirit as determined as the Lincoln administration has exhibited toward the South."
Two days later the Virginia legislature were voting for secession. Just as we would not send any of our soldiers to march in other states and tyrannize other people so will we never allow the armies of others to march into our states and tyrannize our people.
Like many of you, indeed most of you, I've always been a Union man. It is not with joy or with a light heart that many have welcomed secession. Had our neighbors to the North practiced a less bellicose form of persuasion this day might not have come.
But that day has been thrust upon us like it was thrust upon our ancestors. The Lincoln administration required us to raise three regiments. Tell them we have done so.
Dismissed.
Among these men who took up their arms to defend their homes, there is no dishonor and no treason. They have passed onto their children this legacy - that there is something worth living for and, if need be, worth dying for.
It is a legacy that I take to myself gladly and remember always.
And in defeat, they did not lose their honor or glory. In fact, it has been heaped upon them by all us who understand why they fought and will always remember them as heroes.
"Strike the tent."
Sometimes Truth is not pleasant. Of course, some whose ancestors were Traitors might not like it but I don't particularly care it doesn't change the Truth. Some of my ancestors were involved in the same Treason but I don't care to excuse, justify or ennoble it.