In a message dated 2/17/2002 10:09:40 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> In reading the letters and diaries of Union soldiers,  he has noted
>  that, on crossing the Potomac for the first time, virtually all of them
>  refer, sardonically or with bemusement, to "the sacred soil of
>  Virginia."
Jefferson Davis used this phrase in recounting how the Confederate Army threw
the Union from the sacred soil of Virginia at First Manassas.  The phrase was
included in his remarks without quotation marks which are used in later
references by Union soldiers. It seems likely that the later comments are
cynicism and perhaps come from Davis' comments being circulated in northern
papers.

R. E. Dixon

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