All Quotes by William Tecumseh Sherman
“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”
“If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.”
“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”
“War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.”
“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.”
“He belonged to that army known as invincible in peace, invisible in war.”
“Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.”
“There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.”
“I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.”
“I hate newspapermen. They come into camp and pick up their camp rumors and print them as facts. I regard them as spies, which, in truth, they are.”
“The voice of the people is the voice of humbug.”
“If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.”
“It's a disagreeable thing to be whipped.”
“I make up my opinions from facts and reasoning, and not to suit any body but myself. If people don't like my opinions, it makes little difference as I don't solicit their opinions or votes.”
“I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices today than any of you to secure peace.”
“If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.”
“I will accept no commission that would tend to create a rivalry with Grant. I want him to hold what he has earned and got. I have all the rank I want.”
“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.”
“My aim then was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us.”
“War is at its best barbarism.”
“There's many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory but it is all hell.”
“I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.”
“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”
“My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.”
“Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.”
“I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy.”
“In our Country... one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.”
“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.”
“The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war.”
“This war differs from other wars, in this particular. We are not fighting armies but a hostile people, and must make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.”
“War is hell.”
“If you don't have my army supplied, and keep it supplied, we'll eat your mules up, sir.”
“I intend to make Georgia howl.”
“An Army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every change in the rules which impairs the principle weakens the army.”
“You may as well say, 'That's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.”
“I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.”
“You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will.”
“A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand muskets.”
“Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.”
“War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.”
“No rebels shall be allowed to remain at Davis Mill so much as an hour. Allow them to go, but do not let them stay. And let it be known that if a farmer wishes to burn his cotton, his house, his family, and himself, he may do so. But not his corn. We want that.”
“War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it; the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.”
“I 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.”
“I can make this march, and I will make Georgia howl!”
“War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. Other simple remedies were within their choice. You know it and they know it, but they wanted war, and I say let us give them all they want; not a word of argument, not a sign of let up, no cave in till we are whipped or they are.”
“Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.”
“You might as well appeal against the thunder-storm as against these terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the people of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at home, is to stop the war, which can only be done by admitting that it began in error and is perpetuated in pride.”
“Hold the fort! I am coming!”
“I confess without shame that I am tired & sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. Even success, the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies […] It is only those who have not heard a shot, nor heard the shrills & groans of the wounded & lacerated (friend or foe) that cry aloud for more blood & more vengeance, more desolation & so help me God as a man & soldier I will not strike a foe who stands unarmed & submissive before me but will say ‘Go sin no more.’”
“An army to be useful must be a unit, and out of this has grown the saying, attributed to Napoleon, but doubtless spoken before the days of Alexander, that an army with an inefficient commander was better than one with two able heads.”
“War is Hell.”
“I hereby state, and mean all I say, that I never have been and never will be a candidate for President; that if nominated by either party I should peremptorily decline; and even if unanimously elected I should decline to serve.”
“I will not accept if nominated, and will not serve if elected.”
“My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.”