Winfield Scott Quotes
I deserve removal because I did not stand up, when my army was not in condition for fighting, and resist to the last.
Winfield Scott, 1786-1866, Commanding General, U. S. Army, Statement after his generals attacked and were beaten by the Confederates at Bull Run, July 1861
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Ataturk was a young major at the time commanding troops of a weak and corrupt Ottoman regime. However a combined English and French (the strongest military powers in Europe) invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula threatened to capture the Turkish capital, Constantinople. Ataturk alone rallied the Turkish defenders and fought the invaders to a standoff in long drawn out battle with huge casualties on both sides. Ataturk became a national hero. Although Ataturk thereafter was very reluctant to use military force or endanger troops, the thing he always thought worth the supreme sacrifice (including his own) was the independence and sovereignty of the nation. See {584502} for his continuing belief in this type of sacrifice.
A Federal Naval flotilla was preparing to attack South Carolina Forts Beauregard and Walker in the area of Hilton Head and Port Royal. The navy took both forts the next day with their naval bombardment so powerful that the Confederate Rebels had to abandon both forts gaining a kind of revenge for the Confederate capture of Fort Sumter at the war’s beginning.
Westmoreland’s critics point to this quotation as an illustration of exactly why he was the wrong man for the job. As Vietnam Supreme Commander, he controlled more firepower than any other military leader in history and yet he had “no room” for thought or reason much less mercy. Subsequent commanders of U. S. military efforts were much more sophisticated like, Colin Powell, Norman Schwarzkopf, and Wesley Clark who were leading American thinkers, sophisticated at political and military reasoning and very capable of mercy. The modern American military requires men and women who are skilled at thinking and reasoning.
Muhammad Ahmad, a Muslim spiritual and military leader of Southern Egypt and the Sudan who was leading a jihad against the Egyptian government and the English. Gordon himself was killed shortly thereafter by the Madhi’s followers at the siege of Khartoum.
In contrast to the American army, there was no conscription in Canada. Note the quaint Canadian euphemism, "invited."
The Shakers were an American religion and pacifists Lincoln learned. He was so impressed with their sincerity and way of life that he exempted Shaker men from the draft—the first conscientious objectors formally recognized in America. However, Lincoln made the statement to the Shakers which greatly impressed them and caused much reflection. Quakers had been pacifists also, but until the Civil War Draft there was no mechanism to test.
Attila the Hun. The Romans aided by Theodoric, King of the Visigoths, fought the Huns in the only battle that Attila ever lost which he lost badly. There were 165,000 men killed in an afternoon. The Roman General, Flavius Aetius, had been a boyhood friend of Attila’s and had fought with him against the Visigoths. The Romans had Attila trapped but his old friend let him escape with just a good thrashing to his ego and army as to not upset the balance of power and tilt it in favor of the Goths. Roman foreign policy at the time was to keep all the Barbarians strong enough to fight one another so that none would be dominant but all weaker than Rome. Divide and conquer.
This is not the most common view military view which tends to place the senior officers out of harm’s way as they are “too valuable” to become casualties. Among modern armies, Israel stands out as having the same leadership doctrine as Genghis Khan. Those who attack Israel and lose, never have their commanders at the front of the battle. Israel does.
An example of this was the landing in the beaches of Normandy in WWII. Once on the beaches the allied troops had to win or die. Some of the most heroic fighting in American and English military history occurred on those beaches. Another was the Spanish Explorer Hernando Cortez who after landing in the New World, had his ships burned so that he and his soldiers had to conquer or they would die.
Eggleston was an accomplished writer who had served in the Confederate army of the Civil War. 20 year after the war he wrote a series of articles for the prestigious Northern Atlantic Monthly trying to convey the war from the Southerner’s point of view.
Winfield Scott was an American military commander and political candidate. He served as a general in the United States Army from 1814 to 1861, taking part in the War of 1812, the Mexican–American War, the early stages of the American Civil War and conflicts with Native Americans. Scott was the Whig Party's presidential nominee in the 1852 election, but was defeated by Democrat Franklin Pierce. He was known as Old Fuss and Feathers for his insistence on proper military etiquette, as well as the Grand Old Man of the Army for his many years of service.
