Hello George, I'm sure some of them did. There were just a host of reasons why some of them deserted in my opinion. Looking over the various records there does seem to be some common denominators. Although I don't know if the following Confederate turned out to be a galvanized Yankee he was a deserter and his notation on fold 3 on page 15, I believe speaks volumes. His name was John Joice of Company C 14th Regiment, Louisiana Infantry. If you don't have fold 3 George, you may see about the same thing on Andrew B. Booth's work with the Louisiana soldiers. The following statement was made on his Confederate CMSR's which I thought was a bit unusual. "Deserted to the enemy after hearing of the fall of Vicksburg. One of the bravest men in the company." The 14th Regiment had just fought a hard battle at Gettysburg yet his concern was over Vicksburg. John Joice had been a sailor prior to the war and had enlisted in June of 1861 and was present at almost every engagement with his regiment through Gettysburg. Perhaps he saw the hand writing on the wall so to speak however I believe he had no hard attachments to Louisiana or to the South. He had been born in Sweden. That seems to be the common denominator with many Confederate deserters who became galvanized Yankees, they had been born in the North or in a foreign country.

A deserter with a Confederate unit was more apt to become a deserter with a Union unit generally speaking. Looking back at the American Revolution 1/3 of people in the colonies were tories; 1/3 were pro American rebels; 1/3 were neutral. As the American Revolution dragged on and Americans started winning they helped to sway some of the 1/3 neutral into their corner. I believe the same may hold true during the War Between the States to some degree. However President Lincoln was not a King George III.

Some of the galvanized Yankees from Camp Douglas in late 1864 and early 1865 may have felt that since the war was over in April of 1865 they did not have to fulfill their service requirements and they just left, I've saw quite a few of them under those conditions. However as you stated George as the war grew harder especially in prison camps toward the end of the war the motive for getting out may have forced many into the Union ranks. Most men in 19th century America were hard working and had good character, their word meant something. There were some interesting entries made in the 1920 Tennessee Questionnaire. A few of the Tennesseans felt prior to the war if a man did not do hard manual labor than he was dishonest. Looking at some of the politicians, they may have had a point.

I believe the bottom line was that you could not make a man do something he did not want to do. Indeed many of the Confederate deserters had taken the oath of allegiance in prison and were paroled up North and were not required to join the military. They however had sponsors if you will (relatives/friends) who had a good reputation with the United States government. Many Confederate deserters had no friends or relatives in the North who would vouch for them.