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" (1964)

In this article Richard Bardolph discusses the reasons to why the North Carolina soldiers made the choice to leave their posts. He listed many different reasons, many of them individually based. From protecting their family, to helping them with the harvest, having different political ideology from the federal government, a loss of dedication to the 'cause,' and many more. He goes into discussion on Governor Vance of North Carolina and how he was politically fragmented from the Confederate federal government, especially President Davis. He tried to help his state out and counter the thought that North Carolina troops were prone to desertion. There were many who believed it, and many accounts today that side with this theory, and this article attempts to put reason behind it, justified or not. Bardolph compares the North Carolina farmer to the old English yeoman type, or a middle class, that was absent from other states in the Confederacy, and led to ideology differences with the wealthy elite, and to more desertion. All in all, because of countless reasons, North Carolina troops were prone to desertion, mostly because of personal, individual reasons.

Bardolgh, Richard

Bardolph, Richard, "Inconstant Rebels: Desertion of North Carolina Troops in the Civil War," North Carolina Historical Review. 2nd Ed. Vol 41. 1964: 163-189.

1861-1865

Scholarship

Journal Article

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 valor' generous, beyond belief, in his response to the fearful demands made upon him; he remains an authentic American hero, celebrated alike by the descendents of his comrade-in-arms and of his conqueror.

And yet, desertion from the ranks of the Confederate Army had progressed alarmingly before the end of the first year of the War, and by the latter half of the conflict hundreds of regiments could not muster so much as one-third of their paper strength.