"All (Indians) who cling to their old hunting grounds are hostile and will remain so till killed off." - Gen. Sherman
"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." - Gen. Sherman
"We must act with vindictive earnestness against the Sioux,
even to their extermination, men, women and children... during an assault, the soldiers cannot pause to distinguish between male and female, or even discriminate as to age." Gen. Sherman
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The only good Indian is a dead Indian" -Gen. Sherman
"The young bloods of the South: sons of planters, lawyers about towns, good billiard-players and sportsmen, men of the county... They are splendid riders, first-rate shots and utterly reckless. These men must all be killed by us before we can hope for peace."-Gen. Sherman
"We must kill Nathan Bedford Forrest if it costs 100,000 lives and breaks the Federal Treasury. There will never be peace in Tennessee till Forrest is dead." -Gen. Sherman
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To secure the safety of the navigation of the Mississippi River I would slay millions. On that point I am not only insane, but mad... I think I see one or two quick blows that will astonish these natives of the South and will convince them that, though to stand behind a big tree and shoot at a passing boat is good sport and safe, it may still reach and kill their friends and families hundreds of miles off. For every bullet shot at a steamboat, I would shoot a thousand 30-pounder Parrots into even helpless towns on Red, Ouachita, Yazoo, or wherever a boat can float or soldier march."-Gen. Sherman
"We must stop these swarms of Jews who are trading, bartering and robbing."-Gen. Sherman
"I am satisfied, and have been all the time, that the problem of this war consists in the awful fact that the present class of men in the South must be killed outright rather than in the conquest of territory." -Gen. 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." -Gen. Sherman
"If they want war, well and good; we accept the issue, and will dispossess them and put our friends in their place
. I know thousands and millions of good people who at simple notice would come to North Alabama and accept the elegant houses there. If the people of Huntsville think different, let them persist in war three years longer, and then they will not be consulted. Three 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." -Gen. Sherman
"If the people raise a howl against my barbarity and cruelty, I will answer that war is war, and not popularity-seeking. If they want peace, they and their relatives must surrender." -Gen. Sherman
"All the powers of earth cannot save them, 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. A people who will persevere in war beyond a certain limit ought to know the consequences. Many, many peoples with less pertinacity have been wiped out of national existence." -Gen. Sherman
"where are your men and appliances of war to contend against us? The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or 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 your brave spirit and foolhardy determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely be destroyed" -Gen. Sherman