Please help me source (verify) US Civil War claim

Hi Folks

I recall some years back a history professor of mine telling us that during the civil war one of the European (Prussian?) observer making a statement to the effect that if the North and South were unified they would be stronger than all the armies of Europe.

Now, recognizing that it is possible that this didn’t actually happen, are there any civil war buffs here that could help me find our exactly what was said and who said it?

Thanks

Well, one of the reason why England stayed out of the war was that the Union Army was the largest army in the world at that time. According to this, it had nearly a million men under arms serving for much of the war. The South had about 400,000. I doubt Europe could gather together that many men – and the Union had plenty of manpower left over.

Maybe that European (Prussian?) observer went by the name of Abraham Lincoln:

"All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. "

The Lincoln quote was from 1838 (at which point I’m pretty sure the U.S. Army was a comparatively small force, as it tended to be when the U.S wasn’t actually fighting a war all through the 19th Century and on up until the build-up to World War II). To the extent the Lincoln quote has any validity as an observation about military affairs, it is as a commentary on the difficulty of mounting an intercontinental invasion.

Great quote!

And, BTW, the reason those foreigners can’t drink from the Ohio is because of our God-given Second [del]Commandment[/del] Amendment. Cite? Threads right here at SDMB.

According to my husband, it might be Justus Scheibert, an observer on J.E.B. Stuart’s staff.