Letter to Secretary of War Simon Cameron, detailing some disagreements with the actions and policies of General McCellan, and requesting to be granted a retirement (9 August 1861).
Kontext: Major-General McClellan has propagated in high quarters the idea expressed in the letter before me, that Washington was not only "insecure," but in "imminent danger."
Relying on our numbers, our forts, and the Potomac River, I am confident in the opposite opinion; and considering the stream of new regiments that is pouring in upon us (before this alarm could have reached their homes), I have not the slightest apprehension for the safety of the Government here. … I must beg the President, at the earliest moment, to allow me to be placed on the officers' retired list, and then quietly to lay myself up — probably forever — somewhere in or about New York. But, wherever I may spend my little remainder of life, my frequent and latest prayer will be, "God save the Union!"
Winfield Scott: Zitate auf Englisch
“Say to the seceded States, "Wayward sisters, depart in peace."”
Letter http://www.familytales.org/dbDisplay.php?id=ltr_wfs1343&person=wfs to William H. Seward (3 March 1861); though the only suggestion from this letter commonly quoted, this was actually the last and final alternative of what he considered to be 4 options available to President Abraham Lincoln in dealing with the secessionist states.
“Lee is the greatest military genius in America, myself not excepted.”
As quoted in Life of General Robert Edmund Lee (1870) by C. Stoctly Errickson, p. 35.
Address to the 11th Infantry Regiment at the Battle of Chippawa (14 June 1814) in the War of 1812, as quoted in The Military Heroes of the War of 1812 (1849) by Charles Jacobs Peterson, p. 152
Variants:
The enemy say that the Americans are good at a long shot, but cannot stand the cold iron. I call upon the Eleventh to give the lie to the slander. Charge!
As quoted in Primary History of the United States (1913) by Waddy Thompson, p. 282
The enemy say that Americans are good at a long shot but cannot stand the cold iron. I call upon you to give a lie to the slander. Charge!
As quoted in Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (1966) by Robert Debs Heinl, p. 48
The enemy say that Americans are good at a long shot, but cannot stand the cold iron. I call upon you instantly to give a lie to this slander. Charge!
As quoted in From the Ashes : America Reborn (1998) by William W. Johnstone, p. 54
The enemy says that Americans are good at a long shot but cannot stand the cold iron. I call upon you instantly to give a lie to the slander. Charge!
As quoted in Quotes for the Air Force Logistician (2001) by United States. Air Force Logistics Management Agency, p. 73.
“Peace won by compromise is usually a short lived achievement.”
As quoted in The Iron Man of India (1951) by S. Jaysbee, p. 57
“Brave rifles! Veterans! You have been baptized in fire and blood and have come out steel!”
Address to US forces after the of Battle of Chapultepec in the Mexican-American War (September 1847) as quoted in The Life and Military and Civic Services of Lieut-Gen. Winfield Scott (1861) by Orville James Victor, p. 106.
