Alan, thanks for sharing this story. l can understand how frustrating it must have been trying to track deserters, especially in terrain they knew, and their families helping them. l can also see the frustration of families whose "man of the house" was away risking his life to help preserve the life they knew, while these deserters were roaming free and even stealing from them. l feel sure there are instances of the frustration building to a point that these families and the home guard, resulted in them doing a few slightly unlawful things to help rid the area of these deserters. l am not condoning the act of desertion by any means, but looking at it from both sides, a man serving in the army (either federal or Confederate) away from home, had to worry about his farm, his family, the crops, his livestock, etc. l can imagine there were times his duty to his country was out weighed by his duty to his family, so off he took. ln the case of a lot of southern men returning home, they came back to find they had no home left, no farm, just the burned out remains of what was once their home. l had an ancestor that was a "draft dodger". His family found out they were coming to get him as a conscript. His mother hid him in a quilt closet, they searched the quilt closet, but stopped removing quilts just a couple of layers before they would have found him. The reason they hid him, he was the last boy in the family, his dad and brothers were away fighting, so he had to tend the farm and protect the family. So many cases of men serving far from home that wanted to desert and come home, but did not for their loyality to their country and their beliefs. So many sad stories, especially for the confederate soldier, he was kind of darned if he did, and darned if he didn't.