William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman /tᵻˈkʌmsə/was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War, for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth8 February 1820
CityLancester, OH
CountryUnited States of America
War is at best barbarism.
War is at best barbarism. Its glory is all moonshine...War is hell.
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?
I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy.
You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace.
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 voice of the people is the voice of humbug.
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. War suits them.. 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.
In our Country... one class of men makes war and leaves another to fight it out.
War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.
We cannot change the hearts of the people of the South, but we can make war so terrible that they will realize the fact that however brave and gallant and devoted to their country still they are mortal and should exhaust all peaceful remedies before they fly to war.
The scenes on this field would have cured anybody 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 might as well appeal against the thunderstorm.