General Thomas Lays It Out

Matt McKeon

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[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 Gen. George Thomas.
 

Matt McKeon

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Thomas is one of the more admirable figures from the Civil War. He was right about the Union, right about the USCTs, right about the KKK, and even nice to horses. The "Slowtrot" moniker was a prewar nickname because of his concern with sparing army mounts from needless exertion.
 

5fish

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He should be called the destroyer of armies...

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;
He figured out the "Lost Cause movement" ...
 
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