Human aspects of the campaign found most vivid and revealing expression in the letters of the lesser officers and the men whom they led. Robert M. Gill, a Mississippi lieutenant promoted from the ranks, poured out in full and frequent letters to his wife his homesickness, his hopes, his fears, and his spiritual concern; in so doing, he revealed his virtues and his frailties and his ups and downs of morale until a Yankee fusillade snuffed out his life at Jonesborough. On June 22, 1864, he wrote from near Marietta: “I saw a canteen on which a heavy run was made during and after the charge. I still like whiskey but do not want any when going into a charge for I am or at least was drunk enough yesterday without drinking a drop.” Lieutenant Gill tried very hard to live up to his wife’s admonitions against “the sins of the camp,” but he had great difficulty with profanity, especially in the excitement of battle. After the action at Resaca, he wrote apologetically: “The men did not move out to suit me, and I forgot everything and began to curse a cowardly scamp who got behind.” Six weeks later he reported another lapse, and following the Battle of Atlanta he wrote: “I done some heavy swearing, I am told.... I try to do right but it seems impossible for me to keep from cursing when I get under fire. I hope I will do better hereafter. I do not wish to die with an oath on my lips.” Gill’s morale remained relatively good until after the fall of Atlanta. Shortly after that event, he wrote: “I think this cause a desperate one ... there is no hope of defeating Lincoln.... I wish I could be sanguine of success.”