Lafayette McLaws Division

Lafayette McLaws Quotes

Last Updated March 11, 2011

“He was an officer of much experience and most careful.  Fond of detail, his command was in excellent condition, and his ground and position well examined and reconnoitered; not brilliant in the field or quick in movement there or elsewhere, he could always be counted on and secured the entire confidence of his officers and men.

Moxley Sorrel describing Lafayette McLaws

From Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer by Moxley G. Sorrell. New York:  Bantam edition, 1992.

“McLaws was rather a peculiar personality. He certainly could not be called an intellectual man, nor was he a brilliant and aggressive soldier; but he was regarded as one of the most dogged defensive fighters in the army.  His entire make-up, physical, mental and moral, was solid, even stolid.  In figure he was short, stout, square-shouldered, deep-chested, strong limbed; in complexion, dark and swarthy, with coal-black eyes and black, thick, close-curling hair and beard.  Of his type, he was a handsome man, but the type was that of the Roman centurion; say that centurion who stood at his post in Herculaneum until the lava ran over him.”

Robert Stiles from  Four Years Under Marse Robert.  New York and Washington: The Neale Publishing Company, 1904.