last wild effort Hood's beaten army fled, having lost fifteen
thousand men, five times as much as Thomas.

The battle of Nashville came nearer than any other to being a
really annihilating victory. Out of the forty thousand men Hood
had at first in Tennessee not half escaped; and of the remainder
not nearly half were ever seen in arms again. As an organized
force his army simply disappeared. The few thousands saved from
the wreckage of the storm found their painful way east to join
all that was left for the last stand against the overwhelming
forces of the North.



CHAPTER XII. THE END: 1865

By '65 the Southern cause was lost. There was nothing to hope for
from abroad. Neither was there anything to hope for at home, now
that Lincoln and the Union Government had been returned to power.
From the very first the disparity of resources was so great that
the South had never had a chance alone except against a disunited
North. Now that the North could bring its full strength to bear
against the worn-out South the only question remaining to be
settled in the field was simply one of time. Yet Davis, with his
indomitable will, would never yield so long as any Confederates
would remain in arms. And men like Lee would never willingly give
up the fight so long as those they served required them.
Therefore the war went on until the Southern armies failed
through sheer exhaustion.