'You Are Bound to Fail.'
Union officer William Tecumseh Sherman to a Southern friend:
In all history, no nation of mere agriculturists ever
made successful war against a nation of mechanics. . . .
You are bound to fail. (Catton, Glory Road 241)
The American antebellum South, though steeped in pride and raised in
military tradition, was to be no match for the burgeoning superiority of
the rapidly developing North in the coming Civil War. The lack of
emphasis on manufacturing and commercial interest, stemming from the
Southern desire to preserve their traditional agrarian society,
surren…
