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  • Tags: desertion

Martha Hendley Poteet, Letter to Francis Marion Poteet (June 16, 1864)

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My Dear husband I seat My self this evening to write you a few lines to let you know how we are Some of us is not well me and Thomas Francis Emer Susannah Amy Jane has the bowell complaint I aint Much sick but I do hope these few lines May Reach your…

Martha Hendley Poteet, Letter to Francis Marion Poteet (Nov. 24, 1864)

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Dear husband Nov 24th 1864 I Seat My self this eavning to write you a few lines to let you know that we are still in the land of the living I aint very well the children is well excepting bad colds but I do hope these few lines will Reach your kind…

Peter S Bearman, "Desertion as Localism: Army Unit Solidarity and Group Norms in the U.S. Civil War" (1991)

Desertion as Localism: Army Unit Solidarity and Group Norms in the U.S. Civil War

Drawing from the experiences of 3,126 enlisted men from North Carolina who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, the author focuses on the determinants of desertion. Men deserted because their identity as Southerners was eroded by an emergent…

Photo of Desertion

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Photo of a Confederate deserter being discovered.

Richard Bardolph, "Confederate Dilemma: North Carolina Troops and the Deserter Problem" (1989)

Richard Bardolph, "Confederate Dilemma: North Carolina Troops and the Deserter Problem" (1989)

At the Beginning of the Civil War, the Confederate States of America could hardly have foreseen the enormous problem that desertion in its army would have become. Amid the initial enthusiasm following the outbreak of the conflict, the rush of…

Richard Bardolph, "Inconstant Rebels: Desertion of North Carolina Troops in the Civil War" (1964)

Richard Bardolph, "Inconstant Rebels: Desertion of North Carolina Troops in the Civil War" (1981)

That the Confederate soldier has no superior in the annals of war is an article of the American Creed. His accomplishments against overwhelming odds, through four years of heroic suffering, are his monument. Magnificent in his forbearance and his…

Richard Reid "A Testcase of the 'Crying Evil': Desertion Among North Carolina Troops During the Civil War" (1981)

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A major problem that faced both armies during the Civil war was desertion. As the conflict dragged on into a protracted war of attrition, the loss of men through absenteeism struck hardest at the South. Before the end of 1861 it had become a problem…

Scott King-Owen "Conditional Confederates: Absenteeism Among Western North Carolina Soldiers 1861-1865" (2011)

Civil War History

Several scholars have determined that western North Carolina men, like Sergeant Wyatt, deserted in larger numbers than their compatriots across the state did. Richard Reid’s 1981 study found a desertion rate of 16 percent for western North…

The Civil War Letters of W.D. Carr of Duplin County, North Carolina

Sunday, Sept. 7th, 1862
Mrs. L. Carr-Dear Mother,
As Mr. Bass is going to start home early in the morning, will write you a few lines and let you know who we are getting along. We are all tolerable well. Sam Evans was taken quite sick day before…

Walter C. Hilderman III, "The Absolute Necessity, April - November 1862" (2005)

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On April 16, 1862, Jefferson Davis signed America's first national compulsory military service law...The new law prevented the one-year volunteers from leaving the army for two more years and provided for the conscription of additional three-year…