Deserter Declarations

Firsthand accounts of North Carolinian Confederate deserters and their motivations for deserting

Deserter Declarations explores nearly two hundred letters from Confederate deserters to Governor Zebulon B. Vance from 1861 to 1865.

This book explores nearly two hundred letters from Confederate deserters to Governor Zebulon B. Vance from 1861 to 1865. It shares the voices of deserters or friends and family petitioning on their behalf. Browning helps us understand who deserters were and lets us tease out some of the factors that motivated soldiers to leave their posts. These letters add vivid specificity to the often-contentious debates over deserters in the Confederacy and shed light on the changing attitudes of deserters over the course of the war. North Carolina is an excellent case study for desertion, as the state had the highest number of deserters. The Old North State also represents a microcosm of the entire South’s geography and demography.