"With all my devotion to the Union and the feeling of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to raise my hand against my relatives, my children, my home. I have therefore resigned my commission in the Army, and save in defense of my native State, with the sincere hope that my poor services may never be needed, I hope I may never be called on to draw my sword....." in a letter to his sister, April 20, 1861
"We may be annihilated, but we cannot be conquered."
"These men are not an army -- they are citizens defending their country."
"If I had taken General Longstreet's advice on the eve of the second day of the battle of Gettysburg … [then] the Confederates would today be a free people."
"We had, I was satisfied, sacred principles to maintain and rights to defend, for which we were in duty bound to do our best, even if we perished in the endeavor."
"I think it better to do right, even if we suffer in so doing, than to incur the reproach of our consciences and posterity."
"Do your duty. That is all the pleasure, all the comfort, all the glory we can enjoy in this world."
"After four years of arduous service marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. With an unceasing admiration of your constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful rememberance of your kind and generous consideration for myself, I bid you an affectionate farewell."
"Governor, if I had foreseen the use those people designed to make of their victory, there would have been no surrender at Appomattox Courthouse; no sir, not by me. Had I foreseen these results of subjugation, I would have preferred to die at Appomattox with my brave men, my sword in this right hand."
August 1870 to Governor Stockdale of Texas