William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.

I think I understand what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.

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.

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.

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.

War's Legitimate Object Is More Perfect Peace.

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.

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.

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.

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?

An army is a collection of armed men obliged to obey one man. Every enactment, every change of rule which impairs this principle weakens the army, impairs its value, and defeats the very object of its existence.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will.

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.

We can make war so terrible and make them so sick of war that generations pass away before they again appeal to it.

The voice of the people is the voice of humbug.

War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it.

If nominated by either party, I should peremptorily decline, and even if unanimously elected, I should decline to serve.

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.

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

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.