TR,
I went to my data base and looked at the 88th Illinois. The reason I chose them is because they for the most part come from the same geographic area in the state and they mustered in about the same time and once again because I looked at only Companies A and B in the 90th, I there fore only looked at Companies A and B in the 88th. What I found was that before Jan of 63, they had 9 desertions in that time period and after Jan of 63 they had 7 desertions. Among the desertions after Jan of 63, one man deserted twice and then there were three who were excanged at Annopolis MD and then deserted. SO in terms of men from Illinois, I don't see much differnece from the Irish and the rest of the army.