Quotes from Sarah Bird

The circumstances of our meeting. I was wounded, my eyes were bandaged, and she saved my life. But most curious, ridiculous, really, if examined logically, is the fact that though I never actually saw the woman, I fell in love with her.

THE YELLOW ROSE OF TEXAS" You may talk about your Dearest May, And sing of Rosa Lee, But the Yellow Rose of Texas Beats the belles of Tennessee. TRADITIONAL

Dry your tears, Queenie. Only one thing world cares less about than a black man's tears, that a black woman's. You be dead soon anyway. You not half as tough as you think you are.

Fact is, the Rebels were trapped so tight in their harebrained dream of what the South was, even death wouldn't release them.

You traitor! We took you out of darkest Africa, got you civilized, gave you the word of our Redeemer Jesus Christ, and this is the thanks?

butternut Yank. One of those who'd fought to save the Union. A slave-owning Union, that is.

I worried I might have a heart as evil and unfeeling as those savages. Just like back in the barracks, all I could think was, What about Clemmie? What about Iyaiya? And I sure didn't see any answers in the faces twisted with rage for a corn husk doll.

This was news to me and gives you an idea of how different men were with their friends. Had Lem and I been girls, of the normal sort rather than my tomboy brand, we'd of known everything about each other from favorite color to which of our friends riled our nerves so bad one of us was bound to stick an ice pick in her. I surely would of known that my best friend shoed horses, making him the one person, giant or midget, no cavalry outfit could do without.

Because, in the end, it takes a heck of a lot more than queso, Dr Pepper, and hair spray to make a real Texas Woman. The single truly essential ingredient that every real Texas Woman must possess is this: she must know that she is exactly as special as the state she comes from.

Yes, yes, Carter, I see your point. We simply let her ride away. We'll muster her out later. Discharge her for medical reasons. Have the quack in town sign the papers. You're right. Who cares if she tells her story? No one will ever believe that a woman served for two years in the Buffalo Soldiers. Most citizens can't believe niggers of any sex can be real soldiers. Yes, let her go.

saw clear as day what was going to happen: these white men would erase us. Not just me, but all of us. The noble and the wicked. Wager and Vikers. Lemuel and Caldwell. No history book would show us putting up the telegraph lines and guarding the stagecoaches, tracking Indians and making the West safe. Hell, they might not even show the armies of black cowboys that rode the Texas ranges. Or any of our boys who fought in the Rebellion. Solomon? Would they erase Solomon, too?

Again and again, readers told me about the altered version of history they'd been taught during their required two years of state history. It was news to many of these extremely well-educated, progressive readers that Texas had fought not one, but two wars for the right to own slaves.

Love makes intellectual pretzels of us all.