William Tecumseh Sherman Quotes

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.

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.

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

Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.

The North can make a steam engine, locomotive or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or a pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical and determined people on earth - right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with.

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

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.

The more Indians we can kill... the less will have to be killed the next war, for the more I see of these Indians, the more convinced I am that they all have to be killed or be maintained as a species of paupers.

We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux, even to their extermination, men, women and children... during an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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 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.

The voice of the people is the voice of humbug.

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

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

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

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?

The carping and bickering of political factions in the nation's capital reminds me of two pelicans quarreling over a dead fish.

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

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.

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

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.

A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand muskets.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

If you don't have my army supplied, and keep it supplied, we'll eat your mules up, sir.

I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy.

The only good Indian is a dead Indian

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.

...[We] must stop these swarms of Jews who are trading, bartering and robbing.

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.

You may as well say, 'That's a valiant flea that dare eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion.

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.

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.