If the war had been to preserve slavery, I would have offered my sword to the South.
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
That quote turns up a lot on the Internet, but no one's been able to give a reliable citation for it. Grant's own writings reflect a rather different view of the war. The evidence is this purported quote is one of those untrue Internet myths that doesn't deserve to go on being circulated.