List of last words (19th century)

;"Only a soldier's blanket! Make haste and return it to him at once." :—Ralph Abercromby, Scottish soldier and politician (28 March 1801). Wounded at the Battle of Alexandria, he asked what had been placed under his head and was told it was "Only a soldier's blanket." ;"Let me die in the old uniform in which I fought my battles for freedom. May God forgive me for putting on any other." :—Erasmus Darwin, English physician and natural philosopher (18 April 1802), urging his daughter to bleed him ;"Stop, go out of the room; I am about to die." :—George Fordyce, Scottish physician (25 May 1802), to his daughter, who had been reading to him ;"Doctor, if I could be the man I was when I was 21 years of age, I would be willing to be stripped stark naked on the top of the Alleghany Mountains to run for my life with the hounds of hell at my heels." :—Joseph Priestley, English chemist, natural philosopher and theologian (6 February 1804), while dictating revisions to his works ;"I have not yet lost my feeling for humanity." :—Alexander Hamilton, American statesman (12 July 1804), addressing his wife after being mortally shot by his rival Aaron Burr in a duel ;"I shall not live more than two days, therefore make haste." :—Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, Royal Navy admiral (21 October 1805), mortally wounded at the Battle of Trafalgar ;"I think I could eat one of Bellamy's veal pies." :—William Pitt the Younger, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (23 January 1806) ;"I'll be shot if I don't believe I'm dying." :—Charles James Fox, British statesman (13 September 1806) ;"Have pity on the poor Indians; if you can get any influence with the great, endeavor to do them all the good you can." :() :—Adrienne de La Fayette (24 December 1807), French marchioness who married Marquis de Lafayette ;"I have peace of mind. It may arise from stupidity, but I think it is founded on a belief of the Gospel. My hope is in the mercy of God through Jesus Christ." :—Meriwether Lewis, American explorer (11 October 1809), apparent suicide/possible murder ;"I am dead." :—Alexander Adam, Scottish teacher (18 December 1809), imagining himself still at work ==1810–1819==

;"I will not kneel. Fire!" :—Louise of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen of Prussia (19 July 1810) ;"Contemplate the state in which I am fallen, and learn to die." :—Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (11 May 1812), mortally wounded by gunshot ;"I thank God for having enabled me to meet my fate with so much fortitude and resignation." :—Isaac Brock KB, British Army officer (13 October 1812), mortally wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights ;"The pains, the groans, the dying strife. How long, O Lord, how long?" :—Sir William Erskine, 2nd Baronet, British Army officer and Member of Parliament (1813), after jumping from a window in Lisbon, Portugal ;"I will not abandon the post which Providence has assigned me; I think it my duty not only to sacrifice my pleasure and repose, but my life, should it be necessary, for the safety of my patients." Fight her till she sinks." :—Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (16 May 1815), to his aide Major von Wachholtz asking for whereabouts of adjutant-general Elias Olfermann shortly after being shot in the liver at the Battle of Quatre Bras ;"Charge! Hurrah! hurrah!" :—Thomas Picton, Welsh officer of the British Army (18 June 1815), before being shot in the temple at the Battle of Waterloo ;"Soldiers, save my face; aim at my heart. Farewell." Soldiers, fire!" :—Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Irish satirist, playwright and poet (7 July 1816), dying in poverty ;"A beautiful day, yes, but— / 'Who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, / This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned; / Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, / Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind?'" nothing but death." :—Gomes Freire de Andrade, Portuguese military officer (18 October 1817), sentenced to death after being accused of leading a conspiracy against the country's British military government in the name of King John VI. ;"You make me drunk. Pray leave me quiet. I feel it affects my head." :—Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, Prussian field marshal (12 September 1819), to his aide-de-camp, August Ludwig von Nostitz ;"Glory to God in the highest. The whole earth shall be filled with his glory." :—Jesse Appleton, second president of Bowdoin College and father of First Lady of the United States Jane Pierce (12 November 1819) ==1820–1829==

;"Blessed Virgin, have mercy." :—Lavinia Fisher, American alleged serial killer (18 February 1820), prior to execution by hanging ;"I am mortally wounded ... I think." :—John Crome, English landscape artist (22 April 1821) ;"I was born a Greek, I shall die a Greek." Joséphine." :—Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States (4 July 1826), talking to his doctor ;"Thomas Jefferson survives." :—John Adams, president of the United States (4 July 1826), unaware that Jefferson had died earlier that same day ;"Farewell child of sorrow—Farewell child of misfortune and persecution—you are now secure from the tongue of slander—for you I have lived; for you I die." :—Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer (26 March 1827), being informed that his publisher had gifted him 12 bottles of wine ;"Brother, brother, strong evidences, nothing but strong evidences will do in such an hour as this. I have looked here and looked there for them, and all have failed me, and so I cast myself on the sovereign, free and full grace of God in the covenant by Jesus Christ; and there, brother, there I have found peace." :—Hongi Hika, New Zealand Māori rangatira (chief) and war leader of the iwi of Ngāpuhi (6 March 1828). Despite his wishes, New Zealand would go on to become a British colony. ;"Here, here is my end." :—Sam Patch, American daredevil (13 November 1829), prior to fatal leap from Genesee Falls ==1830–1839==

;"Quick, quick! some vinegar! I am fainting." :() :—Antonio José de Sucre, Venezuelan independence leader and President of Peru and Bolivia (4 June 1830), after being shot while riding in the jungle of Colombia. He was said to be an educated gentleman who had never cursed until that day. ;"O God! I am dying." (To his physician) "This is death." :—James Monroe, president of the United States (4 July 1831), referring to his close friend James Madison ;"Oh God, what an injustice." :() :—Dic Penderyn, Welsh laborer and coal miner (13 August 1831), prior to execution by hanging for the non-fatal stabbing of a soldier during the Merthyr Rising. Another man confessed to the stabbing on his deathbed in 1874. ;"Only one man ever understood me. :—Georges Cuvier, French naturalist and zoologist (13 May 1832), to a nurse who was bleeding him ;"Happy." :—Marie-Antoine Carême, French chef (12 January 1833), to a pupil ;"Thank God, to-morrow I shall join the glorious company above." ;"Write that word 'Remorse'; show it to me." :—Simon Byrne, Irish bare-knuckle boxer (2 June 1833), dying after fight against James Burke ;"Thank God that I have lived to see the day when England is willing to give twenty millions for the abolition of slavery." :—James Pratt, one of the last two men executed for sodomy in England (27 November 1835), prior to being hanged with the other man, John Smith ;"Great God, Sue! The Mexicans are inside our walls! All is lost! If they spare you, love our child." :—Almaron Dickinson (6 March 1836), Texian soldier and rebel, killed in action at the Battle of the Alamo; husband of Alamo survivor Susanna Dickinson ;"Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear." :—James Madison, president of the United States (28 June 1836), to his niece, who had asked him what was the matter ;"Madame." :—Charles Simeon, English evangelical Anglican clergyman (13 November 1836) ;"Texas recognized! Archer told me so. Did you see it in the papers?" :—John Field, Irish pianist and composer (23 January 1837), to his friend Gebhard ;"Try to be forgotten. Go live in the country. Stay in mourning for two years, then remarry, but choose somebody decent." :—Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet (), to his wife, Natalia Pushkina, after being mortally wounded in a duel with Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès, who was rumored to be having an affair with Natalia ;"It matters not where I am going whether the weather be cold or hot." :—John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, British barrister and politician (13 January 1838) ;"I am suffering, sire, the pangs of the damned." :—Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, French clergyman and diplomat (17 May 1838), to Louis Philippe I, who had asked how he was ;"I am about to leave you. I have labored in the sanctuary fifty-three years, and this is my comfort and confidence, that I have never labored without blood in the vessel. Goodbye! Drive on!" :—Christmas Evans, Welsh nonconformist minister (19 July 1838) ==1840–1849==

;"I am ready." :—William Henry Harrison, president of the United States (4 April 1841), to his doctor but possibly intended for John Tyler, his vice-president and successor ;"Now I die." :() :—Bernardo O'Higgins, Chilean independence leader and statesman (24 October 1842) ;"I strike my flag." :—Charles XIV John, King of Sweden and Norway (8 March 1844), whispering the name of his son and heir ;"Come quick! Quick!" :—Hyrum Smith, American religious leader in the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints), brother of Joseph Smith (27 June 1844), killed by a mob along with his brother ;"O Lord my God!" :—Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism (27 June 1844), before falling from a window during his murder ;"Will no one have pity on me? Here, fire here?" :—Andrew Jackson, president of the United States (8 June 1845) ;"Happy, happy." ;"Weary, very weary." :—Henry Francis Lyte, Anglican poet (20 November 1847) ;"This is the last of Earth. I am content." :—John Quincy Adams, president of the United States (23 February 1848), after collapsing in the United States Capitol ;"There, I told you that she would pay it if you went the right way to work with her." :—Emily Brontë, English novelist (19 December 1848), to her sister Charlotte ;"I am food for what I am good for—worms. I ought to have been among other things a good poet. Life was too great a bore on one peg & that a bad one.—Buy for Dr. Ecklin above mentioned Reade's best stomach pump." :—Anne Brontë, English novelist (28 May 1849), to her sister Charlotte ;"I love you, Sarah. For all eternity, I love you." :—Edgar Allan Poe, American writer (7 October 1849) ;"Not yet." :() :—Frédéric Chopin, Polish composer and pianist (17 October 1849), asked by his physician if he was suffering ;"Wonderful! Wonderful this death!" :—William Etty, English artist (13 November 1849), watching the sunset over the River Ouse, Yorkshire ==1850–1859==

;"The South! The poor South! :—Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (14 September 1852), upon being asked if he would like a sip of tea by his valet. ;"'I still live!" :() :—Maria II, queen regnant of Portugal (15 November 1853), addressing her surgeon during her eleventh childbirth ;"O Paradise! O Paradise! At last comes to me the grand consolation. My prisons disappear; the great of earth pass away; all before me is rest." :() :—Almeida Garrett, Portuguese author (9 December 1854), addressing his friend Francisco ;"If you wish for another cheerful evening with your old friend, there is no time to be lost." :—Joseph Beaumont, English Methodist minister (21 January 1855), announcing the first lines of a hymn to his congregation. He then fell dead as they sang the second line. ;"Cover my face." :—Andrew Bolon, American Bureau of Indian Affairs agent (25 September 1855), prior to his throat being cut by a member of the Yakama ;"That fellow hit me." ;"Relief has come." :—Philip Barton Key II, American lawyer who served as U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, pleading to his murderer Daniel Sickles, with whose wife Key had an affair (27 February 1859) ;"How grand those rays! They seem to beckon earth to heaven." :() :—Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, queen consort of Portugal (17 July 1859) ;"Sister! sister! sister!" :—Thomas De Quincey, English essayist (8 August 1859), to a vision of his dead sister ;"Well, I must arrange my pillows for another night – when will this end!" :—Washington Irving, American writer and diplomat (28 November 1859) ;"I, John Brown, am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with Blood. I had, as I now think, vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed it might be done." :—John Brown, American abolitionist (2 December 1859), final written words prior to execution by hanging ;"I shall retire early; I am very tired." :—Thomas Babington Macaulay, British historian and politician (28 December 1859), to his butler ==1860–1869==

;"It is all one, Phillips and Clarke will come for my sake." :() :—Desideria, Queen of Sweden and Norway (17 December 1860), after collapsing in a staircase of Stockholm Palace ;"No noise, no music, no bohemia!" :—Henri Murger, French author of Scenes of Bohemian Life (28 January 1861) ;"Death, death, death." :—Stephen A. Douglas, American politician, Senator from Illinois and 1860 Democratic presidential nominee (3 June 1861) ;"No, Your Majesty, to-morrow you will not see me here." :—Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (29 June 1861) ;"Boys, they've killed me, but never give it up!" :—James Cameron, Union colonel of the American Civil War (21 July 1861), before being mortally wounded at the First Battle of Bull Run ;"There is Jackson standing like a stone wall! Rally behind the Virginians. Let us determine to die here and we will conquer. Follow me." :—Charles Lennox Richardson, English merchant (14 September 1862), prior to death in the Namamugi Incident ;"Yes, yes, I'm dead—good-by!" :—Jesse L. Reno, Union general of the American Civil War (14 September 1862), mortally wounded at the Battle of South Mountain ;"Tell McClellan that my last regret as a military man is that I did not die serving under him." ;"I am dying, carry me to the rear." Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees." :—Stonewall Jackson, American and Confederate soldier and general of the American Civil War (10 May 1863), dying of pneumonia after being wounded by friendly fire ;"Forward men forward for God's sake and drive those fellows out of those woods." :—John F. Reynolds, Union general of the American Civil War (1 July 1863), prior to being fatally shot at the Battle of Gettysburg ;"Tell father that I died with my face to the enemy." Margaret." :—Richard Rowland Kirkland, Confederate soldier (20 September 1863), mortally wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga ;"Congestion. :—Joseph Henry Green, English surgeon (13 December 1863), breathing with difficulty on his deathbed and then taking his own pulse ;"Good night." :—Thomas Starr King, American Universalist and Unitarian minister and orator (4 March 1864), when his young son was brought to see him ;"Colonel, rally your men and advance as soon as possible." They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance. [...] All right, my man; go to your place."{{refn|group=note|While these were his last words, Lincoln's final utterance was laughter. As the President watched the play Our American Cousin, actor Harry Hawk delivered one of the best lines of the play: "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!" Lincoln was laughing at this line when he was shot. At the moment of death some observers said his face seemed to relax into a smile. As he died his breathing grew quieter, his face more calm. According to some accounts, at his last drawn breath, on the morning after the assassination, he smiled broadly and then expired. Historians, most notably author Lee Davis, have emphasized Lincoln's peaceful appearance when and after he died: "It was the first time in four years, probably, that a peaceful expression crossed his face." :—Henry Wirz, Confederate States Army officer (10 November 1865), referring to his noose prior to execution for war crimes ;"The Emperor said to me: 'I....'" :—Sergey Volkonsky, Russian major general and Decembrist (10 December 1865); he died mid-sentence as he was writing his memoirs ;"Ah! my child, let us speak of Christ's love—the best, the highest love!" :—Alexander Roberts Dunn , Canadian British Army officer, Crimean War Victoria Cross recipient (25 January 1868), mortally wounded by gunshot under unclear circumstances during hunting expedition near Senafe ;"I do not have to forgive my enemies. I have had them all shot." :—Tom Dula, former Confederate soldier (1 May 1868), prior to execution by hanging for the murder of Laura Foster ;"I have been a great trouble." :—Kondō Isami, Japanese samurai, Tennen Rishin-ryū master, and Shinsengumi commander (17 May 1868), just before his execution ;"Wish I had time for just one more bowl of chili." :—Kit Carson, American frontiersman (23 May 1868) ;"Oh, Lord God Almighty, as thou wilt!" :—Okita Sōji, Japanese samurai and Shinsengumi captain (19 July 1868), referencing his failure to kill a stray cat over previous days, as he died of tuberculosis ;"I have my death wound, General. I am shot and dying... Yes, Good night... My poor mother." :—Fredrick Henry Beecher, United States Army lieutenant (September 1868), mortally wounded at the Battle of Beecher Island ;"One thousand greetings to Balakirev." :—Hector Berlioz, French composer (8 March 1869) ;"It is a great mystery, but I shall know all soon." :—George Peabody, American financier and philanthropist (4 November 1869) ==1870–1879==

;"I die for my country." :() :—Francisco Solano López, 2nd president of Paraguay (1 March 1870), after his last stand in the Battle of Cerro Corá ;"Is not this dying with true courage and true greatness?" Strike the tent!" :—Lovisa, Queen of Sweden and Norway (30 March 1871) ;"Why, certainly, certainly!" :—Agustín Morales, president of Bolivia (27 November 1872), speaking to Federico La Faye before being shot by the latter. ;"I live." :() :—Aleksis Kivi, Finnish author and poet (31 December 1872) ;"We were not cowards at Sedan, were we?" :() :—Napoleon III, Emperor of the French (9 January 1873), speaking to his doctor, Henri Conneau ;"Stand up for Jesus in all circumstances." :—Gabriel García Moreno, President of Ecuador (6 August 1875) ;"I might have lived another year if I had not caught this cold, but I am satisfied to go now. I am eighty-four years old—long past the allotted time of man—and at my age, life becomes a burden." :—Josephine, Queen of Sweden and Norway (7 June 1876) ;"Farewell, I am going to die. Goodbye Lina, goodbye Maurice, goodbye Lolo, good ..." :—George Armstrong Custer, United States Army officer (25 June 1876), to Sergeant Charles Windolph prior to the Battle of the Little Bighorn ;"Where's the General?" :() :—João Carlos de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun, 1st Duke of Saldanha, Portuguese statesman (18 November 1876) ;"Let me have my own fidgets." :—Brigham Young, American religious leader and politician (29 August 1877), referring to Joseph Smith ;"I'm fine here now" : :—Takamori Saigo, Japanese general (24 September 1877), a word of surrender for Satsuma Rebellion. ;"Good-bye Mary, good-bye forever." :—Pope Pius IX (7 February 1878) ;"This time it will serve me for the voyage from which there is no return, the voyage of eternity." :—Frederick John Cokayne Frith, Scottish officer in the British Army (5 June 1879), mortally wounded during the Zungeni Mountain skirmish ;"Lord, have mercy upon me." :—Kate Webster, Irish murderer (29 July 1879), prior to execution by hanging ==1880–1889==

;"I suppose it had to come to this. Such is life." :—Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger and convicted police murderer (11 November 1880), prior to execution by hanging ;"Tell them I have a great pain in my left side." :—Charlie Bowdre, American cowboy and outlaw, associate of Billy the Kid (23 December 1880), shot dead in an ambush ;"So this is death ... well ... " :() :—Billy the Kid, American outlaw and gunfighter (14 July 1881), entering a dark bedroom whereupon sheriff Pat Garrett shot him after recognizing his voice ;"I wish Vaughan to preach my funeral sermon, because he has known me longest." ;"Oh, Swaim, this terrible pain. Press your hand on it. :—Jesse James, American outlaw (3 April 1882), examining a picture on his wall before being murdered by Robert Ford ;"Then you really think I am dying? At last you think so. But I was right from the first." bituminous coal —" :() :—Karl Marx, political theorist (14 March 1883), when asked by his housekeeper about his last words ;"Lord, receive my spirit." ;"How interesting this all is! :—Robert Emmet Odlum, American swimming instructor (19 May 1885), after being fatally injured in dive off Brooklyn Bridge; a friend falsely reassured him that the fluid was only brandy ;"This is the fight of day and night. I see black light." :() :—Victor Hugo, French novelist (22 May 1885) ;"Water." :—Emil Zsigmondy, Austrian mountain climber (6 August 1885), referring to route on south face of the Meije prior to falling to his death ;"My exit is the result of too many entrées." :—William Henry Vanderbilt, American multimillionaire (8 December 1885) ;"Young man, keep your record—" :—Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (8 November 1887), after a nurse refused him a whiskey ;"Hurrah for anarchy!" :—George Engel, German-born American labor union activist (11 November 1887), prior to hanging after Haymarket affair ;"This is the happiest moment of my life!" :—Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (6 December 1889) ==1890–1900==

;"A little while and I will be gone from among you. Whither I cannot tell. From nowhere we came, into nowhere we go. What is life? It is a flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset." :() :—Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (29 July 1890), to his brother sometime before dying of (presumably) a self-inflicted gunshot wound ;"Oh Puss, chloroform—ether—or I am a dead man." :—Emperor Pedro II of Brazil (5 December 1891) ;"Who is that?" :—Kyari of Bornu, ruler (shehu) of Kanem–Bornu Empire ( February/March 1894), to his captor Rabih az-Zubayr before his execution ;"Enough, Enough." Do I look strange?" :() :—José Martí, Cuban author and national hero (19 May 1895), addressing trooper Angel de la Guardia during the Battle of Dos Ríos ;"God protect Bulgaria." :—John Wesley Hardin, American outlaw and gunfighter (19 August 1895), killed in an El Paso saloon by John Selman ;"Don't sole the dead man's shoes yet!" :() :—Otto Lilienthal, German aviation pioneer (10 August 1896), fatally injured in glider crash ;"I want to get mumbo-jumbo out of the world." :() :—José Rizal, Filipino nationalist, ophthalmologist and polymath (30 December 1896), quoting Jesus prior to execution by firing squad for rebellion, sedition and conspiracy ;"Ah, that tastes nice. Thank you." :() :—Duchess Sophie Charlotte in Bavaria (4 May 1897), killed in Bazar de la Charité fire in Paris ;"What's the time?" :—Thérèse of Lisieux, French Catholic Carmelite nun and mystic (30 September 1897) ;"It feels fine to be able to sleep here on fast land as a contrast with the drifting ice out upon the ocean where we constantly heard the cracking, grinding, and din. We shall have to gather driftwood and bones of whales and will have to do some moving around when the weather permits." :—Salomon August Andrée, Swedish engineer, physicist, aeronaut and polar explorer (October 1897); final diary entry prior to his death during Arctic balloon expedition ;"No, Bill, I've got too much Georgia grit for that." :—Richard Von Albade Gammon, American football fullback fatally injured in game (31 October 1897), responding to teammate who asked if he was going to give up ;"Take away these pillows, I won't need them any longer." :—Soapy Smith, con artist and gangster in the American frontier (7 July 1898), after vigilante Frank H. Reid shot him ;"House." :() :—Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (30 July 1898), writing on a piece of paper with unknown meaning ;"No. What has happened?" :—Empress Elisabeth of Austria (10 September 1898), when asked if she was in pain after being stabbed by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni ;(One word - uncertain) :—Emerson H. Liscum, United States Army colonel (13 July 1900), dying after being shot at the Battle of Tientsin ;"Oh, that I might live five years more for my country's sake." :—Cushman Kellogg Davis, United States Senator from Minnesota (27 November 1900) ;"My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go." :—Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright (30 November 1900) ==Notes==