Abraham Lincoln could only say
"Go as you propose"

You were a part
Of Sherman's march to the sea
The unforgiving destruction of total war
Behind you lay Atlanta
Smouldering and in ruins
The black smoke rising high in air
And hanging like a pall over the ruined city.
You set your sights on Savannah

The duke of Wellington said it best
"Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won"

You too were a part
Of the bloodshed at Waterloo
When the strength wasn't there
But the pride said fight on
The seventh coalition
Letting the waterlogged ground dry
Was your ultimate demise
It is said Napoleon left the battle field in tears

And Scipio went on to say
"It is the part of the fool to say I shouldn't have fought"

You were there too
Hannibal in Iberia
Somewhere south of Zaragoza
When his father was assassinated
And his fate and hatred pushed him on
He crossed the Alps with elephants
And seventy-thousand men
The Romans never saw you coming