Desertion

Desertion is defined as a soldier being “absent without leave” from his post. It can have a devastating impact on an army’s morale and on an army’s chances for success on the field of battle. Desertion has been a problem for armies throughout history, but Civil War armies proved especially susceptible because the majority of the soldiers were volunteers. Untrained, untested, and sure that the war would last at most a few months, the reality of camp life and battle drove many young men to “skeedaddle.”

There were other factors when considering desertion during the Civil War. It was easy to escape both on the march and approaching the battlefield. A deserter could easily blend in with the countryside simply because he spoke the same language as his enemies. Many battles were fought in states with heavily divided loyalties, like Tennessee. Deserters would not find it difficult to locate a friendly refuge.

Beyond that, Civil War combat was extremely violent and bloody, arguably more so than any war before or since. Even the bravest and most loyal of men could easily lose their stomach for battle when faced with the carnage that was inflicted on a regular basis. As 1861 turned into 1862 and 1863, the early volunteers became tested soldiers, and desertion rates dropped. The payment of enlistment bounties, however, later in the war brought another wave of desertion, especially to the Union armies. “Bounty jumpers” would enlist, collect their bonus, and then promptly desert so that they could enlist again for another bounty.

There were a variety of motives for desertion. The most common were lack of success on the battlefield and problems at home. Historian Bell Wiley has combed through the letters written by soldiers and identified poor rations, sickness, incompetent or overbearing officers, failure to receive pay, and boredom as reasons why men deserted. Because of the Confederate government’s poor resources, Southern soldiers were more likely to suffer these kinds of aggravations and so were more likely to desert. This was a major concern for Confederate leadership, for the much smaller Confederate army, which never exceeded 500,000 men at any one time, could ill afford the defections. Robert E. Lee thought that desertion played a prominent role in the Confederate army’s defeats at Antietam and Gettysburg.

The Union leadership was also concerned about deserters, and both sides took steps to try to stem the tide of deserters. It was necessary to tread lightly, however. Excessive punishments, such as lashings and executions, deprived the army of a soldier’s services and tended to have a negative impact on morale in the army as a whole. Union and Confederate military and civilian leaders addressed the problem of desertion with a combination of negative and positive reinforcements. When deserters were caught, they were punished. The most severe punishment, death by hanging, was rare, reserved for extreme cases when an example needed to be made.