General William Tecumseh Sherman, in a letter to his brother, Senator John Sherman of Ohio, wrote of the Confederacy:

Three years ago, by a little reflection and patience, they could have had a hundred years of peace and prosperity, but they preferred war; very well. Last year they could have saved their slaves, but now it is too late. All the powers of earth cannot return to them their slaves, any more than their dead grandfathers. Next year their lands will be taken; and in another year they may beg in vain for their lives.

He concluded with a prophetic warning.

Read to them this letter and let them use it so as to prepare them for my coming.

Ironically, Sherman—architect of the March to the Sea and still reviled throughout the South—lived and taught in the South before the war, preferred Southern society and had little sympathy for blacks.