William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

If nominated, I will not run; if elected, I will not serve.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— 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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

He belonged to that army known as invincible in peace, invisible in war.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

The voice of the people is the voice of humbug.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

If the people raise a great howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity seeking.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

It's a disagreeable thing to be whipped.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

War is at its best barbarism.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— 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

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

Grant stood by me when I was crazy, and I stood by him when he was drunk, and now we stand by each other.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

The scenes on this field would have cured anybody of war.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

War is hell.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

I intend to make Georgia howl.

— 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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

A battery of field artillery is worth a thousand muskets.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

War is too serious a matter to leave to soldiers.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

I can make this march, and I will make Georgia howl!

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

Atlanta is ours, and fairly won.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

Hold the fort! I am coming!

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.’

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

War is Hell.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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

— William Tecumseh Sherman

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.

— William Tecumseh Sherman