Thanks Alan. I'm begining to think this soldier was with his company on the retreat from Nashville you described and got sick in MS....when he got out of Way hospital, his regiment was already in route to Carolina and he decided to head home to TN instead of catching up....making his way back to Nashville in April at the end of hostilities and signed the Oath. I guess he felt he needed to give 'em a desertion story since he was not surrendering with his regiment in Carolina.