The Mississippi in the Civil War Message Board

Re: great-grandpa, my two cents

My ancestor is listed as deserting with the 5th Tenn. but truthfully,
the man was shot at Shiloh and then shot somewhere around
Atlanta. My cousin was quite distressed to read that.
I asked my great aunt before her death, who had known the man. Her reply
was, that man never deserted. I truly believed as thin as the records were,
almost non-existent, that no real documentation was kept and nothing is
mentioned about the two times he was shot.
So in the case of your ancestor, poor guy was 42, had a houseful of kids, etc.
that was reason enough for him to go home.
In the Little Rock, Ar. area, in the spring of 1863, there was a mass desertion
from one of the Arkansas units. It was May and planting time, and the men
were up and gone. Later that year, most of the men joined the Union Army when
they were moving through the area of north Arkansas. So if you meet up with
someone who is so proud that their ancestor was with the Union, and came
out of the South, better check their motivation. That happened in my own family.
The deal is that these men were doing what was necessary to survive.
It was a terribly tough time for all.

Messages In This Thread

Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: great-grandpa, my two cents
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL
Re: Need to prove great-grandpa did NOT go AWOL