that is not to say that a general will not be prepared to sustain high casualties while trying to reach an objective. an example in which one side used attrition warfare to neutralize the other side's advantage in manoeuvrability and unit tactics occurred during the latter part of the american civil war, when union general ulysses s. grant pushed the confederate army continually, in spite of losses; he correctly predicted that the union's far superior and more numerous supplies and manpower would overwhelm the confederacy to the point of collapse, even if the casualty ratio was unfavorable.