Thank you for the response. I have read that the desertion rate among Mississippi troops went up when they realized that General Polk was going to evacuate his army as far as Meridian instead of digging in and trying to stop Sherman at Morton. These brothers were from Leake County which is about 30 miles from Morton. If these three were not captured as a result of some skirmish action, they must have been captured while straggling away from their units. I would like to think that they were trying to get to Leake County because they saw the need to protect their nearby homes. I was hoping to find a needle in the haystack.