The River Between Us Warfare Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

They issued them no weapons up at Camp Dunlap, and no uniforms either. Noah wrote to say the legs of his butternut jeans were growing beards. They were given rations of salt pork and dry beans to cook for themselves if they could, or eat raw. That and thirteen dollars a month was their pay.

It was an army that didn't know how to be an army, and it treated its soldiers like beasts of the field. (9.4-5)

By 1861, the United States had been a legit country for four score and, uh, five years, according to Lincoln's math, and had fought a whole handful of wars. So, you'd think we'd have had our act together about how to train troops by that point, but no.

Quote #5

But everybody said that our war, the war on the river, would be waged from Cairo. In our ignorance we still couldn't believe they'd send boys unprepared into battle, though I suppose Cass knew better, in the way she knew things. (9.8)

Unprepared troops have been sent into battle since there have been battles, but in every war, it comes as a big shock. "The war on the river" refers to the Mississippi theater of the war, which somehow never gets as much name recognition as Gettysburg and other eastern battles.

Quote #6

People swarmed wherever you looked. Men mainly, of every age. Most were in uniform or parts of uniform. Some went about their business, but more of them were drunk—reeling drunk and fighting drunk and sleeping it off with their boots in the ditches and their heads cradled in filth.

"They train on the parade grounds all morning," the doctor said, "but nobody can decide what to do with them the rest of the day. The able-bodied." (10.26-27)

Sounds like somebody better figure out what to do with them before they end up with an army that marches on its stomach (you know, because they're all so drunk they're crawling) but dies from liver failure.