Discouraging the Union Army

          During the Civil War, General Robert E. Lee had a shortage of soldiers. His army could be devastated if the Union army discovered this weakness. Since he could not increase the number of soldiers, he decided he could make his army look larger than it actually was.

          He loaded troops on trains and transported them to different places. At every train station, the same Confederate soldiers were unloaded from the trains. It appeared that new troops were being transported in to be added to the Rebel army.

          The Union forces became confused and afraid because they believed the South had a much larger army than they actually had. General Lee hadn't made his army any larger or more powerful. He was simply using a psychological tactic to discourage the Union army. And it worked. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 76)

          Satan tries to make our problems look bigger than they really are, trying to discourage us.