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Since Grant took Richmond

Posted by RRC on August 30, 2009 at 23:31

In Reply to: Since Grant took Richmond posted by ESC on August 30, 2009 at 19:42:

: : I've only heard the phrase "Since Grant took Richmond" used by elderly Virginians, like my deceased relatives. Is it used in other Southern states? Others further afield?

: I've come across the expression in novels and in my phrase books. But never heard it in my native West Virginia. People, during my growing up years, 60s and 70s, didn't talk about the Civil War. It was literally brother against brother and neighbor against neighbor. I didn't realize that until I started doing the family history.

Not in common use.
If you Google it, there are 520 hits but as you page through, Google changes its mind and there are only about 43. Several from a story by North Carolinian Thomas Wolfe, the autobiography of Chicagoan Preston Sturges, and the blog of New Yorker Joan Rivers. So not local.
I have many relatives from Alabama and have not heard them use it. I, too, have ancestors who fought in the War of Northern Aggression.

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