Quotes July 09, 2021

“Grant was something rare in that or any war. He could learn from experience.”
Shelby Foote, The Civil War, Vol. 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville
 
 
 
 
“You must not suppose that I would like you to profess religion without possessing it. A hypocrite is in my opinion one of the most detestable of beings. my opinion is, that every one should honestly and carefully investigate the Bible; and if he can believe it to be the word of God, to follow its teachings.”
Brevet Major Thomas J. Jackson (1 March 1851)”
James I. Robertson Jr., Stonewall Jackson: The Man, the Soldier, the Legend
 
 
 
 
“Notwithstanding our boastful assertions to the world, for nearly a century, that our government was based on the consent of the people, it rests upon force, as much as any government that ever existed.
Robert E. Lee”
William C. Davis, Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee–The War They Fought, The Peace They Forged
 
 
 
 
“This was a people’s war. All the people had a stake in it. All the people had an obligation to put their hearts and wealth and blood into it. All would find their futures indelibly shaped by it.”
William C. Davis, Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee–The War They Fought, The Peace They Forged
 
 
 
 
“Both men lost speech in their last days and hours. Both died at age sixty-three, Lee long since weary of life, and Grant ready to live it again. Their war made them national icons, and their war reputations dictated the balance of their lives, careers, and posterity.”
William C. Davis, Crucible of Command: Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee–The War They Fought, The Peace They Forged
 
 
 
 
“Most civil wars, in fact, end quite badly, and history is rife with lessons that how wars end is every bit as crucial as why they start and how they are waged.”
Jay Winik, April 1865: The Month That Saved America