William Tecumseh Sherman was a Union general during the American Civil War. He is most famous for his March to the Sea, a scorched-earth campaign that destroyed much of the Confederate infrastructure in Georgia. After the war, Sherman became a prominent public figure, advocating for veterans and serving as a superintendent of the newly formed military academy at Louisiana State University.
What is the most famous quote by William Tecumseh Sherman ?
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.
— William Tecumseh Sherman
What can you learn from William Tecumseh Sherman (Life Lessons)
- William Tecumseh Sherman taught the importance of strategic planning and the importance of using unconventional tactics to achieve victory.
- He also showed the importance of adapting to changing conditions on the battlefield and the importance of taking calculated risks.
- Finally, Sherman demonstrated the importance of maintaining a strong moral compass, even in the face of adversity.
The most unbelievable William Tecumseh Sherman quotes that will activate your desire to change
Following is a list of the best quotes, including various William Tecumseh Sherman inspirational quotes, and other famous sayings by William Tecumseh Sherman.
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.
Courage - a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.
War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it. The crueler it is, the sooner it will be over.
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.
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 beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah.
Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.
Leadership quotes by William Tecumseh Sherman
If forced to choose between the penitentiary and the White House for four years, I would say the penitentiary, thank you.
Every attempt to make war easy and safe will result in humiliation and disaster.
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.
War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.
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.
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.
Quotations by William Tecumseh Sherman that are devastation and victory
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?
We have good corporals and good sergeants and some good lieutenants and captains, and those are far more important than good generals.
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.
There's many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory but it is all hell.
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.
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.
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.
The only good Indian is a dead Indian
The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war.
If you don't have my army supplied, and keep it supplied, we'll eat your mules up, sir.
Grant stood by me when I was crazy.
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.
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.
It's a disagreeable thing to be whipped.
If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.
I would make this war as severe as possible, and show no symptoms of tiring till the South begs for mercy.
...[We] must stop these swarms of Jews who are trading, bartering and robbing.
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.
He belonged to that army known as invincible in peace, invisible in war.
War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.
The way to success is strategically along the way of least expectation and tactically along the line of least resistance.
Many and many a person in Georgia asked me why we did not go to South Carolina; and, when I answered that we were en route for that State, the invariable reply was, - Well, if you will make those people feel the utmost severities of war, we will pardon you for your desolation of Georgia.
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.
You might as well appeal against the thunderstorm.
You people speak so lightly of war; you don't know what you're talking about. War is a terrible thing!
Hold the fort! I am coming!
Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all hell!
I intend to make Georgia howl.
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.
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.
At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see that in the end you will surely fail.