Jenny Charlene wrote:
> Sort only looks to the first letter of each line, ...

Sort looks at as much of each line as it needs to.

Example, if you sort these lines:
  gosh
  freedom
  apple
  time
  free
  tully
  more
  sort-test

You'll get this:
  apple
  free
  freedom
  gosh
  more
  sort-test
  time
  tully

You can do some clever things with the -u option.

Vic