“I know perfectly well that the rank has been conferred on all sorts of small people and so cheapened shamefully, but I can’t help feeling that getting it at the close of a most bloody campaign on the recommendation of fighting generals like Crook and Sheridan is a different thing.”

—  Rutherford B. Hayes

Letter to Lucy Webb Hayes (9 December 1864)
Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922 - 1926)
Context: General Crook gave me a very agreeable present this afternoon — a pair of his old brigadier-general straps. The stars are somewhat dimmed by hard service, but will correspond pretty well with my rusty old blouse. Of course I am very much gratified by the promotion. I know perfectly well that the rank has been conferred on all sorts of small people and so cheapened shamefully, but I can’t help feeling that getting it at the close of a most bloody campaign on the recommendation of fighting generals like Crook and Sheridan is a different thing.

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Rutherford B. Hayes 70
American politician, 19th President of the United States (i… 1822–1893

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