This seems to be at odds with the preconcieved notions of today. How do two men decide to NOT re-enlist and leave the army where they are on an island and surrounded by a "hostile" enemy in February 1861? How does someone "desert" from that same such situation? This would seem to suggest to the thinking outside observer that all was not as we have been taught.
Me thinks that the history which we have been taught on this subject in schools and the Universities was a lie. If you print a lie in a school textbook most people will not know the difference because they accept that Textbook with greater conviction than they do the Holy Bible
"***Every man should endeavor to understand the meaning of subjugation before it is too late. We can give but a faint idea when we say that it means the loss of all we not hold most sacred - (not only) slaves and all other personal property, lands, homesteads, (but) liberty, justice, safety, pride, manhood.
It means the history of this heroic struggle will be written by the enemy; that our youth will be trained by Northern schoolteachers; will learn from Northern school books their version of the war; will be impressed by the influences of history and education to regard our gallant dead as traitors, and our maimed veterans as fit objects for derision...."
Major General Patrick R. Cleburne, 1863