The Quotable ACump@ Sherman:

K      AWe accomplished all I undertook.  Our march out and in from Vicksburg was well accomplished; we beat the enemy whenever he opposed or offered resistance.  We drove him out of Mississippi, destroyed the only remaining railroads in the state, the only roads by which he could maintain any army in Mississippi threatening to our forces on the main river.  We subsisted our army and animals chiefly on his stores, brought away about 400 prisoners and full 5,000 Negroes, about 1,000 white refugees, about 3,000 animals (horses, mules, oxen), and any quantity of wagons and vehicles . . . .  For five days 10,000 men worked hard and with a will in that work of destruction, with axes, crowbars, sledges, clawbars, and with fire, and I have no hesitation in pronouncing the work as well done.  Meridian, with its depots, store-houses, arsenal, hospitals, offices, hotels, and cantonments no longer exists.@

 

K      AThree years ago, by a little reflection and patience, they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well.  Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late.  All the powers of earth cannot return to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers.  Next year their lands will be taken; for in war we can take them, and rightfully, too, and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives.@

 

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

 

 

K   AWar is hell.@

 

 

L    AWas this the warfare of the Nineteenth Century?@

General Stephen D. Lee, after the War

 

                                                                                                             

                                  Casualties of the Meridian Campaign

 

Federal:                                                                 Confederate:

 

XVI Corps:                                                             Jackson=s Division:                             Harvey= Scouts:

   K: 6, W: 22, M/C: 115                                           K: 14, W: 64, M/C: 26                           K:3, W: 1, M/C: 2

 

XVII Corps:                                                            Ferguson=s Brigade:                           Escort Company:

   K: 13, W: 37, M/C: 104                                        K: 4, W: 14, M/C: 20                             K: 1, W: 1, M/C: 9

 

Winslow=s Cavalry:                                              Adams= Brigade:

   K: 9, W: 26, M/C: 9                                               K, W, M/C (aggregate): 129  

 

 

TOTAL:                                                                                  TOTAL:

Killed: 28                                                                                               Killed, Wounded, Missing/Captured: 288

Wounded: 85

Missing/Captured: 228                                                    

 

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