CSA Today has his myths, and they are many, I think this is just another one of them. We are to take a 150 year old tale as gospel when it is apparent the man defending it most stridently has made no effort, nor has anyone else apparently, to identify this person who abandoned his arms at a strangers house in hostile territory. It was hostile whether he was a US soldier or a CS soldier for that matter. And as doubts of the story appear... we hear more material apparently pulled out of thin air.
The original article doesn't say bummer, a term which the typical southerner was well aware of. I suspect the current owner's historical knowledge to be typical for most Americans, benign at best. He may simply be repeating a story he was told by family. Such repeating of a story doesn't make it automaticly true. The idea that the elder generation always tells the truth... memories grow lax, confused or fictionalized. I don't know in this case as all I have to look upon are an article from a newspaper, a less than perfect source. Along with the zealous protestations from an anonymous screen name from our unimpeachable CSAToady giving us info that isn't in the article and info he hasn't shared before. It's almost as though it's just been dreamed up. He first broached the story several years ago facing the same questions he's had ample time to research answers to those questions and he still hasn't.
There is no cartridge box, no bayonet and no mention that there ever was... if a soldier is dropping his rifle and his sword I expect he would drop the rest of his traps. I half suspect if the story is even remotely true there is an unmarked grave not to far from the homestead. But as I don't recall seeing a lot of men missing from Shermans command in March of 65... lets just say I have my doubts about the veracity of the story we're getting from CSAToday. We're getting this second hand info from a man who isn't famous for astounding research... at best it needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
March of 1864... the war was all but over, even CS civilians knew it & only the diehards and staybehinders wanted to keep fighting. Everyone else just wanted to get home. We are to belileve a lone US solider decided to go home by abandoning the safety of the column, future rations that kept him going and the sure pay and transportation home that was just a few weeks away along with taking on the stigma of a deserter. If he was with Shermans Army he knew full well the fate of US soldiers caught by CS Home Guards. Are we to believe this man was stupid? CSA Today would have us believe so; he would also have us believe the countryside was rife w/ pillaging, raping, murdering US soldiers.
It's very important to understand that the original article is full of holes and they are holes most likely innocently left. What CSA Today is peddling is something quite different.