I think the “poor white trash” of the South

are falling out of their ranks

by sickness, desertion, and every available means;

but there is a large class of vindictive Southerners

who will fight to the last.

The squabbles in Ricmond, the howls in Charleston,

and the disintegration elsewhere, are all good omens for us;

we must not relax one iota, but, on the contrary, pile up our efforts.

 

—Union Major General William Tecumseh Sherman

Letter to Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant

City Point, Virginia

From “In the Field, Pocotaligo, South Carolina,”

January, 29, 1865