The Union army very nearly destroyed the South's remaining military infrastructure with the burning of Atlanta and Richmond. With the annihilation of the ANV and the loss of Charleston Harbor, the Yankees had another shot at a successful invasion of Texas. That would have eventually cut off the critical supply route from Mexico. Without intervention from Europe, which was hopeless, the Confederate guerillas would have been hard pressed to feed, clothe, and arm large numbers of guerrilla forces comparable to Forrest, Hammond, or John Hunt Morgan. It would soon be more like the smaller hit and run raids in Missouri and Tennessee. The Yankees policy of total war on civilians had worked very much in their favor up the Lee's surrender. A guerilla war would have been a large gamble this total war would fail......after a thousand more towns were pillaged and razed to the ground.