William Tecumseh Sherman Quotes about War

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

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.

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

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

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

The only good Indian is a dead Indian

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Wars are not all evil, they are part of the grand machinery by which this world is governed.

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

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

Hold the fort! I am coming!