They had not, at this point, yet seen all of his remorseless determination. Some Confederates, therefore, underestimated Sherman, as was shown by a conversation between a captain on Sherman’s staff and a refined Southern woman:

“May I ask where you intend to go?” he asked.

“To Augusta, where your army can’t come,” she replied.

“I would not be too sure of that,” he replied. “It is a long way from Nashville to Atlanta, and we are here.”

“Oh yes,” she replied with ineffable scorn, “you will ‘flank’ us, I suppose?”

“Possibly, madam.”

“Look here, sir; there are not two nations on the face of this earth whose language, customs, and histories are [so] different, and who are geographically separated as the poles, but what are nearer to each other than the North and South. There are no two peoples in the world who hate each other more.”