If Lincoln had been a failure, he would have lived a longer life. - James M. McPherson

People are going to dislike you if you make a decision, even if it turns out to be the right one.

Defeat would blot the Confederate States of America from the face of the earth. Confederate victory would destroy the United States and create a precedent for further balkanization of the territory once governed under the Constitution of 1789.

The unending quest of historians for understanding the past — that is, 'revisionism' — is what makes history vital and meaningful.