My men have sometimes failed to take a position, but to defend one, never!
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Source, in full
Statement to Major Heros von Borcke (13 December 1862), as quoted in Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence (1867) by Heros von Borcke, p. 301; this has been paraphrased as "My troops may fail to take a position, but are never driven from one!"