“What Can We Do?”

From FB:

“[Jackson] rode through the early-morning darkness with his aide James Power Smith to visit [mortally wounded Confederate Brigadier General Maxcy] Gregg [with whom he had recently quarreled].

When Jackson arrived he found Gregg fully conscious and in great pain. Jackson took Gregg’s hand, and in a voice filled with emotion said, ‘The doctor tells me that you have not long to live. Let me ask you to dismiss this matter from your mind and turn your thoughts to God and to the world to which you go.’

Gregg, with tears in his eyes, mumbled thanks. He died a day later of his wounds.

On the way back to headquarters Jackson, riding now with [Confederate surgeon Hunter Holmes] McGuire and Smith said nothing until they neared their camp, when he suddenly said, ‘How horrible is war.’

‘Horrible, yes,’ McGuire replied. ‘But we have been invaded. What can we do?‘

‘Kill them, sir,’ Jackson said. ‘Kill every man.'”