Grant Takes Command 1863-1865 Quotes

“Because of that final sentence, no Confederate soldier, from Lee on down, could ever be prosecuted for treason; in effect, this was a general amnesty. There could never be a proscription list to poison the peace with the spirit of vengeance and hatred. Grant had ruled it out.”
― Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command 1863-1865

“No man knows, when that Presidential grub gets to gnawing at him, just how deep it will get until he has tried it;”
― Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command

“And there it was. Grant could not make a routine military appointment without reflecting on the presidential election; indeed, the political tide was so strong and so confusing that routine military acts all became extraordinary, as if something great had to be fought out in men’s minds before anyone could act on the battlefield.”
― Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command 1863-1865

“Before long the meeting at headquarters got down to a serious discussion of how General Bragg was to be dealt with, and Howard suddenly realized that he had never attended a strategy conference like this one: matters were not handled so informally in the Army of the Potomac. Grant and Thomas and Sherman simply talked things out, putting a whole campaign in review—Sherman bubbling with ideas, as always, Thomas full of solid facts about the roads and mountains and rivers where they would have to fight, Grant listening to both men and now and then putting in an observation of his own. Howard, who was not especially fanciful, felt that it was almost like being in a courtroom: Thomas was the learned judge, Sherman the brilliant advocate, and Grant was the jury whose verdict would settle everything.”
― Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command 1863-1865

“At the request of his government, then, Lee wrote to Grant: explaining, first, that runaway Negroes who owed service or labor to Confederate citizens still owed it, that the Confederate government would see to it that they paid what they owed, and that Confederate policy in this matter had abundant historical and constitutional justification.”
― Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command 1863-1865

“Halleck wrathfully wrote to Sherman: “It seems but little better than murder to give important commands to such men as Banks, Butler, McClernand, Sigel and Lew Wallace, and yet it seems impossible to prevent it.”
― Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command 1863-1865

“indicated. The redoubtable Confederate General”
― Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command