A small drum with a red ribbon on one side and a blackened rim on the other, resting on ash-grey ground.

Original artwork, not a still

William Tecumseh Sherman

There is many a boy here today who looks on war as all glory, but, boys, it is all hell.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker confronts an admiring picture of war with an uncompromising description of suffering. Addressing the boys directly makes the warning personal, while the repeated 'all' sharpens the contrast between glory and hell. The final words leave no space for the romantic view being challenged.

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