If a soldier had been sick but able to travel, he was given transportation home to recover. Usually they improved once at home; sometimes the combined effects of infection and exhaustion were too much. For one reason or another, many Confederate soldiers died at home.

During the late stages of the war (1863-65), some soldiers at home or on the way home were ambushed and killed by guerillas.

As often as not, it seems that our ancestor's actual military record doesn't quite fit what we expected.