General George Thomas Sums Up the Civil War

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Oct 3, 2005
[T]he greatest efforts made by the defeated insurgents since the close of the war have been to promulgate the idea that the cause of liberty, justice, humanity, equality, and all the calendar of the virtues of freedom, suffered violence and wrong when the effort for southern independence failed. This is, of course, intended as a species of political cant, whereby the crime of treason might be covered with a counterfeit varnish of patriotism, so that the precipitators of the rebellion might go down in history hand in hand with the defenders of the government, thus wiping out with their own hands their own stains; a species of self-forgiveness amazing in its effrontery, when it is considered that life and property—justly forfeited by the laws of the country, of war, and of nations, through the magnanimity of the government and people—was not exacted from them.

A 1868 quote by the "Rock."


George Thomas, the son of a family of Virginia slaveowners, who disowned him when he chose to stay loyal to the Union, is one of the more admirable figures in the Civil War. Besides his prowess as a battlefield commander, he was right about the USCTs, right about the Civil War, right about the KKK, and even kind to horses. The "Slowtrot" moniker was earned at West Point, where he spared the horses used in training.
 
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