Knute Nelson

“Vicksburg lies on top of a bluff on the east side of a large tongue of land jutting out into the Mississippi.”

“We set the town on fire and burned down every house as a warning to other small towns along the river.”

“What is best and most necessary usually happens.”

“You must not forget that you have been given worldly means to use and employ against human arrogance and wrong.”

“Man is remembered by his deeds.”

“Mess is fairly good. It is like what is found in American hotels except for cake and pie.”

“That death was near, I suppose I believed, but I saw it only as a rest after the day's work.”

“I would prefer being in a hard battle; however, I will be satisfied with whatever happens to me in this war, if only the country comes out of this peril safe and to the satisfaction of the finest and best government on earth.”

“It is in Virginia and Georgia that the war now rages and where it will continue; for at these points - Richmond and Atlanta - the enemy's main strength is concentrated.”

“In the midst of these hard times it is our good health and good sleep that are enjoyable.”

“Gen. Banks has issued an order for the instruction of Negro children. Schoolhouses are to be built or rented and Teachers hired for this purpose, and the farmers and planters are to pay the Taxes in support of this.”

“The scene was not a happy one yet we looked upon it in the cold stoical spirit of a soldier; a slight chilling pang and then a return soul and body to the enemy before us.”

“But it is neither cannon nor bayonet that will do the worst damage to this city. No, this place will remember the war against our government just as long as there are inhabitants here.”

“It is with this as with religion: one usually believes what he has been taught.”

“You say that your hope is in God, and he will, I am sure, stand by you. But you must not forget that you have been given worldly means to use and employ against human arrogance and wrong; it is necessary to see such things with a broad mind in order to oppose them.”

“I know that money speaks more loudly than need.”