Desertion - AOT

[dvrmte]

What were the reasons for so much desertion?

I have relatives from the Georgia mountains that served in the ANV and the AOT. The ones that were in the AOT just about all deserted or were AWOL several times. Relatives from the same county served in the ANV but none of them deserted and all had good records.

I have ideas why, but what are your opinions?

 

[Nathanb1]

What were the reasons for so much desertion?

I have relatives from the Georgia mountains that served in the ANV and the AOT. The ones that were in the AOT just about all deserted or were AWOL several times. Relatives from the same county served in the ANV but none of them deserted and all had good records.

I have ideas why, but what are your opinions?

Gee....if Bragg and Hood were my commanders.....

 

[dvrmte]

The 65th Georgia may have set some record for desertion. Their rate was extremely high and all were from the Georgia mountains.

dvrmte

 

[Nathanb1]

The 65th Georgia may have set some record for desertion. Their rate was extremely high and all were from the Georgia mountains.

dvrmte

Conscripts?

 

[dvrmte]

Conscripts?

The 39th Georgia of the AOT had the same desertion problem and many were from the mountains.

I don't think my relatives were conscripts, at least most weren't. I think it may have been a combination of factors including bad generals and serving in close proximity to their homes.

Sam Watkins was known to take a "French Leave" now and then.

dvrmte

 

[NedBaldwin]

What were the reasons for so much desertion?

I have relatives from the Georgia mountains that served in the ANV and the AOT. The ones that were in the AOT just about all deserted or were AWOL several times. Relatives from the same county served in the ANV but none of them deserted and all had good records.

I have ideas why, but what are your opinions?

Maybe serving in proximity to home made going AWOL more enticing.
Maybe serving under John K Jackson wasn't good for morale.

 

[dvrmte]

Maybe serving in proximity to home made going AWOL more enticing.
Maybe serving under John K Jackson wasn't good for morale.

And maybe serving under T. J. Jackson was good for morale? Lawton's Georgia Brigade had regiments from north Georgia.

 

[K Hale]

And maybe serving under T. J. Jackson was good for morale? Lawton's Georgia Brigade had regiments from north Georgia.

T.J. Jackson led his men to victory. The other guy, not so much.

I would think constant losses would make a soldier's already-hard life almost unbearable. If you're winning, the conditions you're living under may still suck, but at least you can feel like something positive is being accomplished, progress is being made, you're on the winning side, you and yours are kicking butt... however you want to phrase it. Just a thought.

 

[Nathanb1]

Yeah. KHale has an excellent point. To use another of my seemingly endless sports analogies, if I could choose between the kinda lackadaisical coach who didn't make us work very hard (and we lost most of our games) or the SOB who worked our tails off (and we went to State).....I'd pick that SOB every time. I would certainly ***** and moan a lot, but I'd pick him.

 

[prroh]

Jackson, during his Valley campaign, had major AWOL and desertion problems. He found that hanging deserters restored discipline. The highly aloof Jackson was not loved but his men grew to respect him and when the victories started rolling in, pride was instilled.

 

[bama46]

as purely a guess... if you are close to home, then you are close to Mama and it is kinda nice to take a little R n R. Of course, crops need to be planted and harvested, and once again, if you are close... If you were in say the 51st Alabama in virginia and wanted to go home to do these things, it was a little harder ..

 

[Nathanb1]

as purely a guess... if you are close to home, then you are close to Mama and it is kinda nice to take a little R n R. Of course, crops need to be planted and harvested, and once again, if you are close... If you were in say the 51st Alabama in virginia and wanted to go home to do these things, it was a little harder ..

Probably the reason more Texas boys stuck with it in Virginia--but they didn't necessarily do the same closer to home. That would back up that argument about being near Mama or Dearest or the fields at planting time....or when the Comanches got to be intolerable.

 

[lwhite64]

Having a lot of ancestors in the 39th, a lot of them deserters, I can tell you why, they didnt support secession and they didnt support the war. Many of them were simply too poor to stay away from home and put their families in such a bind for something they saw as not really concerning them, in fact they saw the CS Govt as hurting them with Tax in Kind, seizures of horses and mules, and also of crops. As the war went on the threat of John Gatewood's Guerillas would be very real in North GA.

 

[Glorybound]

Having a lot of ancestors in the 39th, a lot of them deserters, I can tell you why, they didnt support secession and they didnt support the war. Many of them were simply too poor to stay away from home and put their families in such a bind for something they saw as not really concerning them, in fact they saw the CS Govt as hurting them with Tax in Kind, seizures of horses and mules, and also of crops. As the war went on the threat of John Gatewood's Guerillas would be very real in North GA.

That makes a lot of sense, at least to me, thanks Lee.

Lee

 

[Nathanb1]

That makes a lot of sense, at least to me, thanks Lee.

Lee

Me, too. Put all these reasons together and you've got--a massive problem, which the Confederacy did.

 

[dvrmte]

Having a lot of ancestors in the 39th, a lot of them deserters, I can tell you why, they didnt support secession and they didnt support the war. Many of them were simply too poor to stay away from home and put their families in such a bind for something they saw as not really concerning them, in fact they saw the CS Govt as hurting them with Tax in Kind, seizures of horses and mules, and also of crops. As the war went on the threat of John Gatewood's Guerillas would be very real in North GA.

I noticed that the 39th was organized April of 1862. Do you think they volunteered to avoid conscription?