The rhetorical complicity indigenous to winning the north Georgia campaign

To ensure a winning cause, the majority may forfeit freedom of expression for security and prosperity. The more confident of conquest the greater the authority of establishment leaders and the lower the rhetorical status of followers. Empowered by promises of victory, to marshall resistance to William T. Sherman's advances through Georgia and to maintain their dominance, southern rhetors formulated three powerful controls: sanctification, distortion, and persuasive coercion.