“You can't lead your troops if your troops do not trust you.”

“Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.”

“Your dispatch is received, and if genuine, which its extraordinary character leads me to doubt, I have to say in reply that I regard the levy of troops made by the administration for the purpose of subjugating the states of the South, as in violation of the Constitution, and as a gross usurpation of power. I can be no party to this wicked violation of the laws of the country, and to this war upon the liberties of a free people. You can get no troops from North Carolina.”

“No commander was ever privileged to lead a finer force; no commander ever derived greater inspiration from the performance of his troops.”

“A general never shows despair. He instills confidence in his troops. He leads them forward, even into the mouth of death.”

“Just a few feet behind them, I can't help thinking about a line from the battered Shakespeare in my bag: "A swan trooping among crows." Except in this case it's the opposite: I am a crow trooping after swans.”