FEBRUARY 1,
1862:
A
Vermont boy writes to his parents:
Co F 5th Reg’t
Vermont Volunteers, Camp Griffin
Febuary 1st 1862
Dear Father &
Mother
I now take my pen in
hand to let you know that I am well & I hope to find you the same I came off from picket guard yesterday
morning I caught a very hard cold I
cant speak only in a whisper it snowed
last night a very little it rains now
like the old harry I dont know when
this muddy weather will be over with
it rains and snows all the time
the mud is up to my knees now
why you cant walk 15 Rods without stopping to Rest oh it is awful we have got to have a big monthly
inspection to morrow General brooks
& General Smith inspects us oh how
I dread it there was a fellow by the
name of John Smith in our company got a furlough to go home for 10 days that was 15 days ago he has not got
back he was Reported a deserter
yesterday morning if they ever catch
him I pity him he will be shot there has 5 men deserted from our Regt
since we been here there has two on
sworn to desert I would like to come
home on a furlough pretty well if I could but I cant I shall have to wait till the Regiment is
discharged and then I can come I got
your likenesses put in a case yesterday
I will get mine taken pretty soon and send it to you there aint a day passes but what 2 or 3
deserters from the Rebel army comes through our lines they are deserting by the Wholesale I tell
you but I must stop for this time so
Good bye this from you Affectionate
Son
Forrest
The Civil War was a war of attrition. After illness, battle
wounds, and deaths, desertion was an immense problem in both armies,
complicated statistically because deserters sometimes re-enlisted or returned
to their units months or even years later. In the Civil War era men who deserted
often but not always clung to a sense of honor that required their eventual
return to combat. Many deserters were tortured or shot when discovered
(shooting was dictated by the letter of the law), though local commanders
sometimes used better discretion in the matter.
President Lincoln was a famous
pardoner of deserters, also issuing periodic general amnesties. As the
exponential violence of the war turned troops from individuals into mass cannon
fodder, able-bodied men were at a premium, and so sending deserters back into
combat became as much as a punishment as it wasn’t. Union troops deserted when
Union fortunes were at low ebb, when they were in winter camp and bored by
military routine, and for various other reasons like the death of a family
member. Many men deserted in the
aftermath of the Emancipation Proclamation, and some became Confederate
soldiers. All in all, roughly 200,000 Union men deserted over the course of
time.
While the esprit de corps of
the Confederate Army was generally better than that of the Union, desertions
were also common, probably ranging into the 300,000s or higher by 1865. Mass
desertions crippled later Confederate war efforts. Frequently, soldiers’ pay
was unavailable, food, clothing and shelter were poor, and shoes and other
basic gear was lacking. Such men often crossed into Union lines and surrendered
for want of food, clothing and shelter.
Frequently, the privations of soldiers’ families drew them home,
especially as war conditions worsened. Oft-times men on furlough could not
manage to rejoin their units because they couldn’t afford to travel or because
the battle lines cut them off from their units. Many men (on both sides) simply
tired of being “Poor Men Fighting A Rich Man’s War.” Mounting Confederate
defeats later in the war also added to the total.
Sometimes groups of men---or
whole units---fled camp, and set up as marauders, living off the civilian
populations: At least half of the operations of Mosby’s Rangers in Virginia
involved protecting civilians from such raiders, and areas like Missouri and
Kansas and central Florida were virtual free-range zones for armed deserters.
Even in early 1862, as can be judged by Forrest’s letter, these issues were
bedeviling the troops.
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