Virginia (1941)

Fred MacMurray: Stonewall Jackson Elliott

Photos 

Quotes 

• Charlotte Dunterry : This is pretty country you're having round here.

  Stonewall Elliott : 'Been having it a long time.

  Charlotte Dunterry : You were born here?

  Stonewall Elliott : My father told me once it was bad manners to ask anybody where they were born. He said, if they were from Virginia you'd know it in ten minutes. And if they weren't, it wasn't polite to humiliate them by asking 'em!

• Charlotte Dunterry : Stoney, why do you resent northerners so? I mean, the ones that come down here, after all they didn't fight the Civil War.

  Stonewall Elliott : Cos' they only come down here to play, without any thought of the land. They play at being gentlemen farmers for a while and then go somewheres else; wherever it's the fad to go. One year it's the lowlands of Carolina, another year it's old farmhouses in Pennsylvania. This year it happens to be the smart thing to buy a place in Virginia.

  Charlotte Dunterry : Hm, Virginia means more to you than just a playground.

  Stonewall Elliott : 'Certainly does. My grandfather was born right over there, and he was killed over there.

  Charlotte Dunterry : Right there?

  Stonewall Elliott : He was with Stonewall Jackson's brigade.

  Charlotte Dunterry : Ha, that's where you get your funny name.

  Stonewall Elliott : That's where General Jackson got the name 'Stonewall'. One of the bloodiest battles of the war.

  Charlotte Dunterry : Can you imagine that? It makes you feel kind of funny. Stoney, Ive always been confused about that war. I mean, slavery wasn't a very nice business...

  Stonewall Elliott : Oh, the war wasn't fought over slavery.

  Charlotte Dunterry : It wasn't?

  Stonewall Elliott : No. The emancipation proclamation wasn't issued till nearly two years after the war had started.

  Charlotte Dunterry : Two years!

  Stonewall Elliott : And that was just a just a smart, political move to keep outside countries from helping the Confederacy. You see, that prevented England or any other country from helping the South. It would look like they condoned slavery, which they didn't.

  Charlotte Dunterry : Can you imagine that? And I always thought that...

  Stonewall Elliott : That was just as phony as most war slogans, like, er, "Make the world safe for democracy". Remember that one?

  Charlotte Dunterry : Yes, I remember it.