Cpl. Thomas Searles Quotes in Glory (1989)

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: [points at the flag-bearer] If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry on?

[Thomas steps forward]

Cpl. Thomas Searles: I will.

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: I'll see you in the fort, Thomas.

[watching Searles practice with his bayonet]

Sgt. Mulcahy: Oh, what do we have here? Bonnie Prince Charley and his toy bayonet! You're not reading your books now. Stab me.

Cpl. Thomas Searles: What?

Sgt. Mulcahy: Stab-me.

[Searles comes at him gingerly and Mulcahy slaps it away]

Sgt. Mulcahy: I said STAB, not TICKLE! Come on, you prissy little schoolgirl! You're the worst soldier in this whole company, now HIT ME!

[Searles comes at him again, Mulcahy disarms him and slams the rifle butt into his stomach, then his face. Searles falls to the ground, writing in pain and sobbing]

Sgt. Mulcahy: No shame, son, get up... I SAID GET UP!

Trip: Nigger forgot to duck, that's all!

Colonel Robert G. Shaw: Sergeant, deal with that man!

[the 54th has just been attached to Col. Montgomery's regiment in the hope of seeing combat. The troops are marching through the regiment's camp]

Cpl. Thomas Searles: Who are these ragamuffins?

John Rawlins: Contraband soldiers, straight from the field.

Short contraband: Hey, we slaves in the field when the Yankee man come. Say we soldiers.

[to Thomas]

Short contraband: Hey, where from?

Cpl. Thomas Searles: Massachusetts.

Tall contraband: You walk like the bukra soldier, even talk like him!

Cpl. Thomas Searles: [to Rawlins] What'd he say?

John Rawlins: He says we march like white soldiers. How you like the Army, contraband?

Tall contraband: Oh, we love it! We thank the Lord every day for da good vittles and these beautiful clothes! Every day like kismis!

Cpl. Thomas Searles: [to Rawlins] What?

John Rawlins: Like Christmas.

Cpl. Thomas Searles: Oh.

Trip: Hey, yo, nigger, that's my spot, see.

Cpl. Thomas Searles: If you don't mind, there's more sufficient reading light here.

Trip: Oooh, I like it when niggers talk good as white folks!

Cpl. Thomas Searles: I'd be happy to teach you. It would be my pleasure

Trip: Now, listen here, snowflake. I ain't got nothin' to learn from no house nigger, you hear?

Cpl. Thomas Searles: I am a free man! As was my father before me.

Trip: Oh, really? You free? Then why don't you move your free black ass out my spot, see!

Cpl. Thomas Searles: It's not true, is it? I mean about not being allowed to fight. The men are living for that day. I know I am.

Jupiter Sharts: [seeing that Thomas is reading] Good book, brother?

Cpl. Thomas Searles: Yes it is, actually. The name's Searles, Thomas Searles.

Jupiter Sharts: Jupiter Sharts, sir. What it 'bout, that book?

Cpl. Thomas Searles: It's a collection of essays, actually... Fourier, Emerson... all the transcendentalists.

Jupiter Sharts: [nods smiling] It got pictures?