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Louisa May Alcott, Hospital Sketches: An Army Nurse's True Account of her Experience during the Civil War., Chapter 1: Obtaining Supplies. (search)
till the right door appeared, then walk into a room containing several gentlemen, and blunder out my request in a high state of stammer and blush.--Nothing could have been more courteous than this dreaded President, but it was evident that I had made as absurd a demand as if I had asked for the nose off his respectable face. He referred me to the Governor at the State House, and I backed out, leaving him no doubt to regret that such mild maniacs were left at large. Here was a Scylla and Charybdis business: as if a President wasn't trying enough, without the Governor of Massachusetts and the Hub of the Hub on top of that. I never can do it, thought I. Tom will hoot at you if you don't, whispered the inconvenient little voice that is always goading people to the performance of disagreeable duties, and always appeals to the most effective agent to produce the proper result. The idea of allowing any boy that ever wore a felt basin and a shoddy jacket with a microscopic tail, to
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing), Foote, Henry Stuart 1800-1880 (search)
Foote, Henry Stuart 1800-1880 Statesman; born in Fauquier county, Va., Sept. 20, 1800; graduated at Washington College in 1819, and admitted to the bar in 1822; removed to Mississippi in 1826, where he entered into active politics while practising his profession. In 1847 he was elected to the United States Senate, and in 1852 was elected governor of the State, his opponent being Jefferson Davis. Mr. Foote was a strong opponent of secession at the Southern Convention held at Knoxville, Tenn., in May, 1859, but when secession was an assured fact he accepted an election to the Confederate Congress, where he was active in his opposition to most of President Davis's measures. He wrote Texas and the Texans (2 volumes); The War of the rebellion, or Scylla and Charybdis, Personal reminiscences, etc. In his day he was a noted duellist. He died in Nashville, Tenn., May 20, 1880.
Oliver Otis Howard, Autobiography of Oliver Otis Howard, major general , United States army : volume 2, Chapter 35: Battle of Atlanta (search)
d at by men at his side. The colors of his regiment were taken at the same time. The enemy's loss in this attack was very severe. By dark the enemy here had retired, except along the line of the works, which position some of them held until nearly daylight the next morning, thus being able to get off their wounded, but leaving the ground literally strewn with their slain. There went on a small body of Confederates, who found little to oppose them as they advanced between Scylla and Charybdis westward — not being detained by Giles A. Smith's brigade on their left, or by Wangelin or Martin more to their right — not enough, however, to make a half mile of unbroken frontage, all well screened by the dense woods through which they were passing, till they came to the foot of Leggett's Hill, where Gresham had been wounded, and up which the gallant Force had successfully led his brigade against great odds the day before. Hood, seeing Hardee's soldiers emerge from the timber and as
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Harvard Memorial Biographies, 1864. (search)
ng is enthusiasm to one who does not sympathize in its object! I hope my enthusiasm is wiser and more manly; but, then one can have more impartial judges than one's self. O for a measure to measure things by! What would I not give to know whether I am an ass or a genius, a coward or a hero, a scoundrel or a saint! Ah, Mynheer, the Country Parson, would smile at that last sentence. I seem to hear from his half-sneering, half-pitying lips, My dear fellow, please steer between Scylla and Charybdis. A fig for such philosophy! It is a priceless happiness to aim at the highest mark, and never dream of missing it. To be sure, if we fail, like the archers that strove for the hand of the Fairy Princess, death is the penalty. Well, who would not run the risk of hell for a simple chance of heaven? Every one but a craven. Down with mediocrity and its laudators. It is better to live a day than to vegetate a century. Enthusiasm, ambition, conflict, and victory,—these make life. All the
Hon. J. L. M. Curry , LL.D., William Robertson Garrett , A. M. , Ph.D., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 1.1, Legal Justification of the South in secession, The South as a factor in the territorial expansion of the United States (ed. Clement Anselm Evans), The South as a factor in the territorial expansion of the United States. (search)
ers of this party joined the Western war cry, aiming to force on Jefferson a choice between adopting the Federalist policy of hostility with France and Spain or a breach with his Western allies. Jefferson, however, was not to be coerced nor deceived. He was firm in his own course, and it was well for the country that he was firm. His policy was not only right, it was successful. The dilemma on which the Federalists sought to impale him was skillfully avoided. This political Scylla and Charybdis had left a middle space wide enough to admit of safe passage, and Jefferson had learned from Ovid, in medio tutissimus ibis. War could be delayed for some hostile act of France, while the attachment of the Western people to the Republican party and their confidence in Jefferson were too firm to be easily shaken. The temper of the West was plainly shown in the debates upon the resolutions introduced into the Senate by Mr. Robert Ross, of Pennsylvania, February 16, 1803. These resolutio
George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 4, 15th edition., Chapter 6: (search)
54. with the aged Belcher, comparative tranquillity. The generality of the people he found to be very rustical, and deficient in learning. Gov. Belcher to the Earl of Leven. To the Calvinist governor the Quakers of this province seemed to want orthodoxy in the principles of religion; but he parried for them the oppressive disposition of the Board of Trade, and the rapacity of the great claimants of lands, who held seats in the Council. I have to steer, he would say, between Scylla and Charybdis; to please the king's ministers at home, and a touchy people here; to luff for one, and bear away for another. Belcher to Sir Peter Warren. Sheltered by its position, New Jersey refused to share the expense of Indian alliances, often left its own annual expenses unprovided for, and, instead of showing zeal in assuming the burdens of war, its gentle and most obstinate enthusiasts trusted in the extension of the peaceable kingdom from sea to sea, and the completion of the prophecies, that
The Daily Dispatch: September 3, 1861., [Electronic resource], Five Dollars reward. (search)
Daring French Engineering experiment. --The Straits of Messina are destined to undergo an operation (on the part of a French engineer) somewhat akin to the daring experiment of the Menai Bridge, but of a different character. There are no projecting cliffs that would enable Charybdis to communicate with Scylla athwart a tubular shaft hung in mid air, over "the masts of some tall admiral; " besides, as a line of railway across the channel is the object in view, an artificial ascent and incline is out of the question, but a gigantic pair of swivel pontoons, nearly on a level with high water, is held to be perfectly practicable, and the engineer, Mr. Oudry, has already demonstrated that in his lately achieved bridge over an arm of the sea at Brest. Between that naval arsenal and the opposite point at Reconveyance, there rolls the tidal estuary, called Penfield Inlet, across which he has thrown two sheet iron tubes, each 254 feet long, resting for support each on a central fulcrum