A member of the 5th Alabama Battalion,William Frierson Fulton II, reported in his diary of his trip lasting one month from Appomattox to Alabama. Like many other soldiers he and his comrades just started walking and took transportation wherever and whenever they ran across it. While many rail lines were still operational, many were not connected and bridges were out. Soldiers who had been captured and released at the end of the war, were generally offered shipping from the northern prisons to Norfolk and to Mobile. Having read many letters and journals of Confederate soldiers coming home, I've found that there were so many different routes and modes of tranportation used, that it would be difficult to pin down a usual arrival date at home. Quite a few men also tarried awhile with friends and relatives in Virginia before starting home.