Thomas Wright's Diary

Quotes

I found a few interesting quotes, I rather like some from Lincoln, Grant, Sherman to name a few. Thought I'd pass some along.

                              Ulysses S. Grant

"I have never advocated war except as a means of peace."

"In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins."

"The art of war is simple enough. Find out where the enemy is. Get at him soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving."

"There was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be to prevent the drawing of sword."

"My failures have been errors in judgment, not of intent."

"I have nothing to do with opinions. I deal only with armed rebellion and it's aiders and abettors."

                      William Tecumseh Sherman

"War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over."

"War is a remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want."

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

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

"If I had my choice I would kill every reporter in the world, but I am sure we would be getting reports from Hell before breakfast."

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

                           Robert E. Lee

"It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow to fond of it."

"The education of man is never completed till he dies."

"I like whisky I always did, and that is why I never drink it."

"What a cruel thing war is...to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors."

"I have been to Congress and they do not seem to be able to do anything except to eat peanuts and chew tobacco, while my army is starving."

"I can not trust a man to control others who can not control himself."

   
                           James Longstreet

"Why do men fight who were meant to be brothers?"

"I hope to live long enough to see my surviving comrades march side by side with Union veterans along Pennsylvania Avenue, and then I will die."

"That man Grant will fight us everyday and every hour until the end of the war."

"General, I have been a soldier all my life. I have been with soldiers engaged in fights by couples, squads, companies, regiments, divisions, and armies, and should know, as well as anyone, what soldiers can do. It is my opinion that no fifteen thousand men ever arranged for battle can take that position."

"The highest of human laws is the law that is established by appeal to arms."

James Pete Longstreet General Confederate Army.
Although a Confederate officer after the war. He joined the Republican Party and supported rights and freedoms for former slaves. This move made him unpopular with many former Confederates.

 

                     Thomas Jonathan Jackson
                           Stonewall Jackson