William Tecumseh Sherman Quotes - Page 2

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• In our Country... one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Country, War, Fighting

  18 Copy quote
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  We have good corporals and good sergeants and some good lieutenants and captains, and those are far more important than good generals.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Important, Captains, Sergeants

  William Tecumseh Sherman, Brooks D. Simpson, Jean Vance Berlin (1999). “Sherman's Civil War: selected correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865”, The University of North Carolina Press

  37 Copy quote

• There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell. You can bear this warning voice to generations yet to come. I look upon war with horror.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Peace, War, Boys

  1880 Speech at Columbus, Ohio,11 Aug. Quoted in Lloyd Lewis Sherman Fighting Prophet (1932).

  28 Copy quote

• To those who would submit to the rightful law and authority, all gentleness and forbearance; but to the petulant and persistent secessionists, why, death is mercy, and the quicker he or she is disposed of the better. Satan and the rebellious saints of Heaven were allowed a continuous existence in hell merely to swell their just punishment. To such as would rebel against a Government so mild and just as ours was in peace, a punishment equal would not be unjust.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Government, Law, Punishment

  56 Copy quote

• The young bloods of the South: sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard-players and sportsmen, men who never did any work and never will... They are splendid riders, first-rate shots and utterly reckless. These men must all be killed or employed by us before we can hope for peace.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Son, Player

  "Memoirs of General William T. Sherman".

  49 Copy quote

• I found so many Jews and speculators here trading in cotton, and secessionists had become so open in refusing anything but gold, that I have felt myself bound to stop it. The gold can have but one use - the purchase of arms and ammunition... Of course, I have respected all permits by yourself or the Secretary of the Treasury, but in these new cases (swarms of Jews), I have stopped it.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Gold, Use, Cotton

  70 Copy quote

• After all, I think Forrest was the most remarkable man our Civil War produced on either side.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Men, Thinking

  "The Life of General Nathan Bedford Forrest". Book by John Allan Wyeth, July 1, 1996.

  56 Copy quote

• But, my dear sirs, when peace does come, you may call on me for any thing. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch with you to shield your homes and families against danger from every quarter.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Peace, Home, Doe

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1990). “Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman”, p.602, Library of America

  19 Copy quote

• If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Thank You, Thanksgiving, Years

  55 Copy quote

• I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers ... it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated ... that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Husband, Father, Tired

  Letter to James E. Yeatman on May 21, 1865. "Sherman: Merchant of Terror, Advocate of Peace". Book by Charles Edmund Vetter, p. 289, 1992.

  32 Copy quote

• The whole army is burning with an insatiable desire to wreak violence upon South Carolina. I almost tremble for her fate.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Army, Fate

  46 Copy quote

• I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Running, Military, Politics

  Telegram sent to General Henderson in 1884. "Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman", 4th edition, 1891.

  42 Copy quote

• There will soon come an armed contest between capital and labor. They will oppose each other, not with words and arguments, but with shot and shell, gun-powder and cannon. The better classes are tired of the insane howling of the lower strata and they mean to stop them.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Tired, Mean, Gun

  17 Copy quote

• I'm a damned sight smarter than Grant; I know more about organization, supply and administration and about everything else than he does; but I'll tell you where he beats me and where he beats the world. He don't care a damn for what the enemy does out of his sight but it scares me like hell.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Sight, Organization

  20 Copy quote

• I knew wherever I was that you thought of me, and if I got in a tight place you would come-if alive.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Business, Society, Alive

  United States. Congress. Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, William Tecumseh Sherman, George Henry Thomas, John Pope, John Gray Foster (1866). “Supplemental report of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War: in two volumes ; supplemental to Senate report no. 142, 38th Congress, 2d session”, p.15

  27 Copy quote

• The way to success is strategically along the way of least expectation and tactically along the line of least resistance.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Expectations, Lines, Way

  11 Copy quote

• To secure the safety of the navigation of the Mississippi River I would slay millions. On that point I am not only insane, but mad... I think I see one or two quick blows that will astonish the natives of the South and will convince them that, though to stand behind a big cottonwood and shoot at a passing boat is good sport and safe, it may still reach and kill their friends and families hundreds of miles off. For every bullet shot at a steamboat, I would shoot a thousand 30-pounder Parrots into even helpless towns on Red, Ouachita, Yazoo, or wherever a boat can float or soldier march.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Sports, Thinking, Blow

  19 Copy quote

• You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it. Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them?

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Country, War, Mistake

  Said to David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary on December 24, 1860. "The Civil War: A Book of Quotations" by Robert Blaisdell, 2004.

  41 Copy quote

• I begin to regard the death and mangling of a couple thousand men as a small affair, a kind of morning dash-and it may be well that we become so hardened.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Death, Morning, Couple

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1974). “"War is hell!": William T. Sherman's personal narrative of his march through Georgia”

  14 Copy quote

• Wars are not all evil, they are part of the grand machinery by which this world is governed.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Evil, World

  5 Copy quote

• The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Civil War, Fields

  William Tecumseh Sherman, Brooks D. Simpson, Jean Vance Berlin (1999). “Sherman's Civil War: selected correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865”, The University of North Carolina Press

  16 Copy quote

• You people of the South don't know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Civilization, Madness

  Said to David F. Boyd at the Louisiana State Seminary on December 24, 1860. "The Civil War: A Book of Quotations" by Robert Blaisdell, 2004.

  9 Copy quote

• I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Christmas, Cities, Civil War

  William Tecumseh Sherman (1990). “Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman”, p.711, Library of America

  63 Copy quote

• There's many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory but it is all hell.

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  Military, War, Boys

  1880 Speech at Columbus, Ohio,11 Aug. Quoted in Lloyd Lewis Sherman Fighting Prophet (1932).

  20 Copy quote

• Hold the fort! I am coming!

  William Tecumseh Sherman

  War, Forts

  Signal to Gen. John M. Corse at Allatoona, October 05, 1864.

  9 Copy quote

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