True plus having approximately 274k Southners black and white enlisting in the Union Army didn't help the Confederacy at all. Offset somewhat by Union Army desertion. Offset by the fact many (I don't have access right now to McPherson who estimated something like 50% of military age males in the Union did not enlist although we have to take into account medical and psychological disabilities) Union milrary age males did not enlist. Also the Union had immigrants arriving some of which is offset by some of them deserting.
Yes I can because I have sourced the numbers many times in my thread" by what metric is the Confederate soldier superior ".By the way in order to prevent thread drift that's where this discussion should go. This threads OP after all is about deserters.
Because that is where your argument is going. You are not really discussing desertion but the battlefield performance of the Confederate soldier.
Exactly. This was mentioned in the other thread as well. In my study of the regiment I research, men are counted as being deserted in the Adjutant General Report after the war despite their CSR showing otherwise. Regardless of what any chart may or may say as to the number of deserters, we all know it cannot be an exact science.
Missing in Action could be caused by a number of reasons. In a previous thread I quoted a Union soldier who wrote a autobiography A Southern boy in blue the memoirs of Marcus Woodcock 6th Kentucky Volunteers " that when the EP was announced Woodcock wrote that two of the men in his regiment deserted due to the EP and one or two men an Indiana regiment next to his.
I don't have his book, but how did Woodcock know that was why those two left? Were they caught and said this? Were they the only two that left camp? Did the other regiment's commander tell him that reason? Is Woodcock being truthful? Lots of unanswered questions if you could please fill in the blanks that would be great.
Woodcock doesn't say but most likely the men who deserted were venting their feelings..One would think if the EP was such a deal breaker most of the Unionist and border state regiments would have been decimated by desertion . That however was not the case.
So how does Woodcock know? Sounds like he doesn't know.
My only conclusion is asking people how they can prove the EP was the reason why Union troops deserted. Has other posters pointed out the defeat at Fredericksburg and the Mud March were also major factors in desertion.
Let's look at a couple of things here. First, Fredericks burg was in early December 1862. The Mud March was in January of 1863. Those events may have indeed created a small spike and I mean quite small. Only those involved would be likely to desert, that's not the entire manpower of the Union army. The EP, on the other hand, was a Union proclamation that reached the entire country, not just those troops. That could indicate why troops other than those on the Mud March or at Fredericksburg or what have you would desert.
I am not the one who is making the assertion that Union troops deserted due to the EP. Steven Sears go's into detail about Union desertions due to General Burnside's inept leadership of the A O P in his book"Chancelorsville.
By that last sentence, you invoke the opposite to be true by posing a leading question. I'm asking you to provide the foundation for your query, nothing more.
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