We have another soldier who had his shoes taken when he was released at Shreveport, LA. He walked back to Morgan Co, MO, barefoot. That would have been a very long ways.
MY husband's ancestor walked back from LA or MS also, to Moniteau Co., MO. He was very destitute for some time and worked at any little job he could find to support his family. He recovered and was successful after a couple of years working for others.
In Morgan County, MO, there appears to have been many, many incidents of murders by Bushwhackers. I have about 100 incidents of violence against the citizens, returning soliders, or those who had served for a short time and I'm sure not all such were reported. I have at least 3 of the women who moved their children to IL, NB, or IA to get away from harassment, house burning, stealing of livestock and other atrocities during the war years. Most returned to the county once their husbands got out of service.
One lady was hanged with their slave in an attempt to find their gold which the father of her 2 boys had sent back from the California Gold Rush. He had died and she had remarried and her new husb. was off fighting. The slave told her to give up the gold and she told the marauders it was in the clock. They took that and released the slave and the woman. She died in 1866, after affects of being hung.