Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Stephen W. Sears

Quote by Stephen W. Sears

Work

Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam

Browse quotes and source details for this work. more

Author

Stephen W. Sears

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Stephen W. Sears. more

You May Also Like

“Both realized the political consequences of allowing the resignation of the first general to beat Robert E. Lee on the battlefield.”

American Civil WarCivil War Eastern TheaterArmy Of The PotomacUnion Army
Book:The Maps of the Bristoe Station and Mine Run Campaigns: An Atlas of the Battles and Movements in the Eastern Theater after Gettysburg, Including ... 1864
Create image

“Without having planned it—and without any official sanction—Chamberlain suddenly gave the order for Union soldiers to “carry arms” as a sign of their deepest mark of military respect. A bugle call instantly rang out. All along the road, Union soldiers raised their muskets to their shoulders, the salute of honor.”

American Civil WarCivil War Eastern TheaterArmy Of The PotomacUnion ArmyAppomattox Campaign
Book:April 1865: The Month That Saved America
Create image

“Reflecting on this order, which lays out a job of work and breathes the very spirit of unhurried calm, one is conscious of that queer feeling of exasperation which, even at this distance, McClellan's acts occasionally inspire. With everything in the world at stake, both for the country and for McClellan personally, why couldn't the man have taken fire just once?”

American Civil WarArmy Of The PotomacUnion Army
Book:Mr. Lincoln's Army
Create image

“In the midst of a grueling all-night march on October 6, the men of the 10th Indiana demonstrated that they had not lost their high spirits. They were taking a brief midnight break, many of them sleeping where they had stopped on either side of the road, when "General" Charles Gilbert came riding through with his staff and demanded that the exhausted troops form up and salute him properly. Colonel William Kise told Gilbert that after marching day and night for a week, "he would not hold dress parade at midnight for any d-d fool living'; the only salute the men offered was to jeer and apply their bayonets to the hindquarters of the horses of Gilbert and his staff, who continued down the road rather more promptly than they had come.”

American Civil WarUnion ArmyCivil War Western Theater
Book:All for the Regiment: The Army of the Ohio, 1861-1862
Create image

“The army had fought hard and endured much, it had pride and self-pity at the same time, and it was developing its own legend, which - like the profound emotional attachment which it had for its commanding general - would always set it apart from the other Union armies. It was acquiring what can only be called a sort of dogged pessimism, a fatalistic readiness to expect the worst, as if it sensed that its best efforts would be wasted but was not thereby made disheartened; and now as for months to come it would have to keep step with its rival, the Army of Northern Virginia.”

American Civil WarCivil War Eastern TheaterArmy Of The PotomacUnion Army
Book:Terrible Swift Sword
Create image

“Meade was more careful and calculating of the odds than Grant . . . and, too, he had the benefit of two years' experience fighting against Robert E. Lee. He took the tactical initiative by translating Emory Upton's feat at Rappahannock bridgehead back in November to seek a similar success against the Spotsylvania salient, as ordered by Grant for May 10. Upton's planning was timely, but not enough time was allotted to position a proper support fire; a day's delay might have awarded a victory to Upton's innovation. It was much the same for the hurried May 12 offensive - there was no time to plan a deliberate exploitation of whatever break might be made in the Confederate lines. This was a very large army with an entrenched high command, and Meade struggled to move it at Grant's arbitrary pace. On May18 (as John Gibbon pointed out the enemy was read, waiting, even anxious for the Yankees to attack, and Grant impatiently ordered this forlorn hope anyway.”

American Civil WarCivil War Eastern TheaterArmy Of The PotomacUnion ArmyOverland Campaign
Book:Lincoln's Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac
Create image

“Complaint was made, then and since, that Meade failed to coordinate his attacks, that he was not up to managing these offensive operations. But Cold Harbor was a stark demonstration that by 1864, whether coordinated or not, no frontal assault on the entrenched Army of Northern Virginia could possibly succeed. And at Cold Harbor Meade recognized that fact before Grant did.”

American Civil WarCivil War Eastern TheaterArmy Of The PotomacUnion ArmyOverland Campaign
Book:Lincoln's Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac
Create image

“Mead had not been invited to the surrender at the McLean house, but he determined to meet his opposite number before the armies parted. On April 10 he rode through the now-peaceful lines to meet his engineer corps comrade from the old army. "What are you doing with all that gray in your bead!" Lee exclaimed. "That you have a great deal to do with!" Meade replied.”

American Civil WarCivil War Eastern TheaterArmy Of The PotomacRobert E LeeUnion ArmyAppomattox Campaign
Book:Lincoln's Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac
Create image