George B. McClellan

“I am tired of the sickening sight of the battlefield, with its mangled corpses and poor suffering wounded.”

“I will not sacrifice my men for public opinion.”

“Who would have thought, when we were married, that I should so soon be called upon to save my country?”

“You have no idea how the men brighten up when I go among them. I can see every eye glisten.”

“The moment for action has arrived, and I know that I can trust in you to save our country.”

“I am here in a terrible place; the enemy have from 3 to 4 times my force.”

“All I have to do is to watch events and do what I think right.”

“I have done the best I could.”

“All quiet on the Potomac.”

“The moment for action has arrived, and I know that I can trust in you to save our country.”

“I have not sought this enormous responsibility, and I feel it in my inmost soul. I have no ambition in the present crisis other than to save my country.”

“The good of the cause is my only object, and I have no personal feelings that can interfere with it.”

“If I save this country, I tell you plainly that I owe no gratitude to you or to any other man in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army.”

“By some strange operation of magic I seem to have become the power of the land.”

“My plans are perfect, and when I start to carry them out, may God have mercy on General Lee, for I will have none.”

“I found no fighting men, but a rabble. I have made them an army.”

“I can do it all.”

“The union of the states is a must.”

“I will not surrender this army.”

“For my country I have given my all.”