Other elements of the story that may not be evident from Cold Mountain:

Deserters and men evading conscription often banded together for self-protection. Whether in groups or not, men in hiding in the woods and hills had to eat. Often families in sympathy with deserters provided food, but farms in isolated areas became subject to raids by these men. Sometimes bands became large enough to raid small communities. County Reserves were organized to protect the home front, especially households having no adult male at home for self-defense.

Stories about this time in Alabama sometimes tell of the frustration of County Reserves, who were expected to arrest deserters and conscripts avoiding military service. As already mentioned, families in sympathy with deserters and conscripts helped to protect and conceal them. County Reserves knew this, and quickly focused their efforts on families protecting the men they wanted to find.

Another element that's not always obvious: these struggles and divisions within Alabama communities provided a reason for families already at odds with one another to pursue old feuds, sometimes to deadly ends.