Isaac O. Best, History of the 121st New York State Infantry

“ [81] some of your troops came up and I was taken back and well cared for.” I said, “General, did you regard the attack we made as well judged?” “Well yes, it was timely but badly supported. I hardly think there was a single line of troops in the Federal army that could have driven my men off, finely posted and sheltered as they were. But if Upton had had another line coming up fifty or a hundred paces in the rear I think we must have yielded, and if we had done so it would have been a very serious blow, because our lines were greatly extended and there were no troops near by to succor us.” Continuing he said, “I knew the troops attacking us were unused to battle by the way they hung on. They ran over our line and took fifty or sixty prisoners on the right of the 16th Alabama, and then stood and let us shoot them down like sheep.” “Any difference in the fighting qualities of Northern and Southern men?” I asked. “Well, yes, I think the Alabamians better than any other troops, but I must say that the way the New Yorkers fought entitles them to the respect of every soldier in either army. But after all the world will never again see such fighting as Lee's army did from Bull Run to Appomattox. My heart swells to bursting with pride and emotion as I think of and recall its heroic achievements. Think of the ragged, half starved, poorly armed battalions from the South successfully resisting for more than four years, all the efforts which the wealth, bravery and skill of the world hurled against them, and then at the last weeping and crying to be led by their old chief in a last charge to a glorious death. I think it the sublimity of bravery and heroism. But your men were brave. Yes, Grant was your best and most skillful general. He pursued but one plan in Virginia, and that was to keep his men in contact and wear us away ”