Progress Is The Sum Of Small Victories

The Enduring Realization That When A Great Challenge Comes, The Most Ordinary People Can Show That They Value Something More Than They Value Their Own Lives. When The Last Of The Veterans Had Gone, And The Sorrows And Bitterness Which The War Created Had At Last Worn Away, This Memory Remained.

It Began With One Act Of Madness, And It Ended With Another. John Brown Heard History's Clock Strike In The Night And Tried To Hurry Dawn Along With Gunfire; Now John Wilkes Booth Heard The Clock Strike, And He Tried With Gunfire To Restore The Darkness. Each Man Stood Outside The Human Community, Directed By Voices The Sane Do Not Hear, And Each Kept History From Going Logically... The Line From Harper's Ferry To Ford's Theater Is A Red Thread Binding The Immense Disorder Of The Civil War Into An Irrational Sort Of Coherence.

A Certain Combination Of Incompetence And Indifference Can Cause Almost As Much Suffering As The Most Acute Malevolence.

Yet There Is A Dignity In The Human Spirit Which Can Become Most Clearly Visible In The Moment Of Defeat And Disaster.

Nathan Bedford Forrest ... Used His Horsemen As A Modern General Would Use Motorized Infantry. He Liked Horses Because He Liked Fast Movement, And His Mounted Men Could Get From Here To There Much Faster Than Any Infantry Could; But When They Reached The Field They Usually Tied Their Horses To Trees And Fought On Foot, And They Were As Good As The Very Best Infantry. Not For Nothing Did Forrest Say The Essence Of Strategy Was To Git Thar Fust With The Most Men.