When counting casualties, keep in mind that Lee frequently didn’t turn in correct casualty reports. The south couldn’t stand the truth. His whole army was nearly gone already at Appomattox Courthouse. Some he had shot for desertion, and then didn’t report the number he had shot.
“When counting casualties, keep in mind that Lee frequently didn’t turn in correct casualty reports. The south couldn’t stand the truth. His whole army was nearly gone already at Appomattox Courthouse. Some he had shot for desertion, and then didn’t report the number he had shot.”
Excuse me, but do you have provenance for those statements?
So called desertions in the Confederate Army should not be confused with same in the Union. Many Confederate soldiers would simply go AWOL, go home and put in, or harvest a crop, to keep their families from starving, then return to their units to fight again. This was widely known and understood by most Confederate commanders, executing such men was not good strategy, killing a man willing to fight, made for one less soldier in battle.
IIRC, President Lincoln pardoned very few men condemned to death for desertion. But President Davis pardoned the majority of deserters when pertinent facts and extenuating circumstances were made known, and except in extreme cases, very seldom approved their death sentences.