Please do not take this commentary/query as being disputatious or disrespectful! Gen. Grant hoped that many of the Vicksburg garrison would desert after supposedly "seeing the handwriting on the wall" about the eventual outcome of the war. There are many comments to the same hoped-for effect by other Union personnel. However, have you actually seen figures that indicate that such a large-scale desertion actually took place after the surrender of the Hill City? I've never seen any such assessment, but it could exist and simply be beyond my experience. The reason I am wondering this aloud (and in print!) is that the one unit I have data on -- the 43rd MS Infantry (i.e., "the Camel Regiment") -- did not experience such a desertion disaster. The 43rd MS had about 400 soldiers when stationed at Snyder's Bluff (north of Vicksburg) before the Siege, and, by the time it was exchanged and re-outfitted for field service in late 1863, nearly every soldier not KIA at Vicksburg had returned to the ranks (with a very few desertions, to be sure). Is there a reliable (i.e., non-Yankee!) database somewhere that gives actual, factual figures for the supposed, Post-Vicksburg mass desertions? I'd be very curious to see same! Thanks, and please understand that I'm just looking for data and not questioning you or your learning in any way whatsoever! -- Jim Huffman, 43rd MS Infantry Vols, PACS