Wiley Sword > Quotes

“Hood, meanwhile, was virtually tripping over his foot in the rush”
― Wiley Sword, The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville

“General Hood has betrayed us. This is not the kind of fighting he promised us at Tuscumbia and Florence, Alabama when we started into Tennessee. This was not a fight with equal numbers and choice of the ground.… The wails and cries of widows and orphans made at Franklin, Tennessee, November 30th, 1864 will heat up the fires of the bottomless pit to burn the soul of General J. B. Hood for murdering their husbands and fathers.” Hood’s actions “can’t be called anything else but murder,” he asserted. “He sacrificed those men to make the name of Hood famous; when [and] if the history of [Franklin] is ever written it will make him infamous.” The men had a right to be told the truth; therefore, “Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord, and it will surely overtake him.”38”
― Wiley Sword, The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville

“Corps commander Alexander P. Stewart, writing with profound emotion, explained in his own mind the mystery of what had occurred in the face of almost certain success at Spring Hill: “There is a Divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we may. If in the next life we are permitted an insight into the events of this life and their causes, we shall be surprised to find how much Providence, and how very little human agency and planning have to do with all really noble and grand achievements. And how little credit is due to many who pass among us as great.”56”
― Wiley Sword, The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville

“Every day’s delay on your part, therefore, seriously interferes with General Grant’s plans,” warned the crusty chief of staff.37”
― Wiley Sword, The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville

“A gentleman of so fortunate temperament such as yourself may not readily sympathize with one whose temper is less fortunately governed.”
― Wiley Sword, The Confederacy's Last Hurrah: Spring Hill, Franklin, and Nashville