This article is the third installment of a multi-part series on the Civil War in Alabama.

As the Civil War careened into its third year, the men who left the front lines to return to their homes, began to escalate.  For many the war was lost or, at the very least, had become too much to bear, especially if they knew their families were suffering at home.  The mind-set of the Alabama soldier was no different.  The total number of deserters, Tories and mossbacks ranged from 8,000 to 10,000 in north Alabama.  There were several thousand deserters from the Alabama troops, most of them from north Alabama and from commands stationed near their homes.  In the end, desertion from the Confederate Army, was much akin to the mossbacks hiding in the woods.  Many of the deserters shared a heritage with the men who never made it into service.  They were largely from the same area and shared the same beliefs.  What made one man run from service, made another change his mind after the rigors of warfare began to take their toll.  An example of the areas similar beliefs was contained in a letter that fell into the hands of a Union spy in Calhoun County, which was circulated extensively among soldiers from North Alabama.  It pointed out the injustice of holding volunteers in service after the term of their enlistment had expired and declared that even the Union and “heathen of the dark ages” did not oppress their soldiers to such an extent.  It called on soldiers to assert their rights against what it called a tyrannical government and demand their discharges, and in case of denial to go home anyway.

The causes of desertion from the Confederate Army were numerous and complex.  The first reason, which was explored by the Confederate leaders at the time, was the questionable character of many of the recruits.  The men were ignorant of the real issues at stake and were only slightly identified with the struggle.  Like the illiterate backwoodsman, they too had been cut off from the mass of their fellow men, were not interested in the economic aspect of the war, and could see little benefit for themselves in the conflict.  Some simply did not like the cause for which they were fighting.  And others, like the unschooled and isolated mountaineers, had no sympathy for their lowland slave owning neighbors and the cause upon which the planter’s prestige had been built.  A second reason for desertion, although not as complex as the feelings of north Alabamians, but nevertheless as important, was the lack of the most ordinary necessities for the soldier.  Most Confederate soldiers entered service without adequate food, clothing, pay and equipment and never got it.

The counties in Alabama in which deserters and Tories offered most serious resistance to military service were included in a list released in 1864 by the Confederate Commandant of Conscripts.  Included were Walker, Fayette, Winston, Lawrence, Blount, Marshall, Dekalb, Cherokee, St. Clair, and Calhoun.  Unauthorized transfers, especially from infantry to cavalry and from Confederate to state operations, were so frequent that they constituted a menace to the army.  The practice was aggravated by illegal recruiting which persisted from 1862 to 1865.  As the object of officers and men of illegal companies was to avoid service, some of the companies simply remained in the process of formation, while others went through the motions of rendering service.  An example was the formation in 1864 of several cavalry companies, composed largely of deserters from Calhoun, St. Clair and Dekalb Counties with the ostensible objective of protection against depredations of deserters.

The very location of the Tories and deserters was a major concern of the Confederate government and a major advantage of the deserters themselves.  The hilly terrain made finding them hard, and the close proximity to the Union lines in Tennessee made an escape, if necessary, into Union held territory only a few days’ ride away.  The peace movement supported by the Tories, and its ultimate aim of reconstruction with the Union, was made easier by the location in north Alabama.  Had the Peace Society been located in a more central or southern section of the state, it would probably not have garnered the support it did by being close to the Union lines. 

The conditions that living in isolation presented were horrific, even by nineteenth century standards.  The country was described by a Confederate captain as being almost abandoned by any military force and filled by deserters and disloyal men who were avoiding military service.  The lawless men of the hills banded together to form a society that served a double purpose of opposing the government and its laws and to harass and rob the citizens of north Alabama.  Confederate government officials had stated that the bandits had made weekly, and in some cases, daily excursions throughout northern Alabama for the purpose of robbing loyal citizens, stealing horses, arm, money, provisions, clothing and taking captive men of the area that had proven their loyalty to the Confederate government.  Confederate Colonel S.A.M. Wood, who had encountered a band of thirty of the bandits, described them as “the most miserable, ignorant, ragged devils I ever saw.”  Doubtless, the isolated location of these people played a major role in their lowly dispositions.

As the strain of war continued for two more harsh years, the dissolution with the conflict grew even among those that had energetically taken the oath in 1861.  The Civil War changed many lives and altered the direction of countless southern families.  In reflecting, even today, we as a people should look to the hardships faced during that four year tragedy and strive to improve ourselves and our communities so we do not face another struggle as those 150 years ago faced.