Thomas Fleming > Quotes

“Soldiers of the world’s most powerful king were surrendering to ragged rebels who had defied that sovereign in the name of a new idea, the liberty of free men.”
― Thomas Fleming

“Thomas Jefferson, brilliant theorist of the Declaration of Independence, was a disaster as the state’s wartime governor. Instead of organizing Virginia’s resources on an emergency basis, he had concentrated on building an ideal government where nothing was done without the consent of the governed. As a result, Virginia, with 50,000 militia on her rolls, was unable to repulse 900 British under traitor Benedict Arnold, when they came to raid in late 1780.”
― Thomas Fleming

“In most houses, militiamen received no quarter. “All that we found in the houses were put to death,” Lieutenant Barker said. Lieutenant McKenzie confirmed this practice.”
― Thomas Fleming, First Stroke: Lexington and Concord

“My heart beats,” he said in the same letter, “when I think of the treaty of peace.”
― Thomas Fleming, Beat the Last Drum: The Siege of Yorktown

“The Lexington company were tragic victims of one of those unreal moments when two nations are moving towards war, yet neither wishes to strike the first blow, and many on both sides cannot bring themselves to believe that the blow will really be struck, that guns will go off, that men will really bleed and die.”
― Thomas Fleming, First Stroke: Lexington and Concord

“To an amazing degree, from the Revolution in 1776 to Vietnam, belief in a quick victory pervaded the opening months of almost every war we have fought. - From Underestimating The Enemy: The Mistake That Starts Our Wars”
― Thomas Fleming

“On September 28 at 5:00 a.m., Washington started his Franco-American army down the road from Williamsburg to Yorktown.”
― Thomas Fleming