Shelby Foote believed the Union victory was inevitable, that the war to the South was TOTAL, all consuming to the general population and to the industrial complex (as limited as it was);whereas he thought the Union fought the war with one hand, while the other went about life with little to no concern or care about the war. I tend to agree with Foote.
Sherman was a professor at Louisiana State Seminary (forerunner to modern LSU) before the war. He knew the two sides very well and predicted the Confederates would bite off more than they could chew
Sherman wrote this to another professor in 1860, seeing the inevitability of a Civil War. Sherman had seen combat in the Seminole Wars.
"You people of the South don’t know what you are doing. This country will be drenched in blood, and God only knows how it will end. It is all folly, madness, a crime against civilization! You people speak so lightly of war; you don’t know what you’re talking about. War is a terrible thing! You mistake, too, the people of the North. They are a peaceable people but an earnest people, and they will fight, too. They are not going to let this country be destroyed without a mighty effort to save it … Besides, where are your men and appliances of war to contend against them?
The North can make a steam engine, locomotive, or railway car; hardly a yard of cloth or pair of shoes can you make. You are rushing into war with one of the most powerful, ingeniously mechanical, and determined people on Earth — right at your doors. You are bound to fail. Only in your spirit and determination are you prepared for war. In all else you are totally unprepared, with a bad cause to start with. At first you will make headway, but as your limited resources begin to fail, shut out from the markets of Europe as you will be, your cause will begin to wane. If your people will but stop and think, they must see in the end that you will surely fail."
Sherman was sent home early in the Civil War because of his extreme pessimism– he was deemed a bit crazy.