Re: Branded
Stan, I do not see any conflicting viewpoints on desertion between you and me. Like you, I did not believe the comparison of Robert E. Lee's (or any other U.S. officer's)resignation to desertion had any merit. In the WBTS, with the Consription Law and the vast majority of able bodied men in the CS Army, there had to be some desertion just to get crops planted or harvested in time so families did not starve to death. There must have been many thousands of gut wrenching decisions for those Confederates. Paraphasing something you said, they did not run off to some foreign country, mostly they went home.