The endorsement indiates that he did desert but what does his service record say? In the book A Compendium of the Confederate Armies - Tennessee, by Stewart Sifakis, pages 37-38, "Disbanded by Brigadier General John Echols, commanding Department of Southwestern Virginia and East Tennessee, at Christianburg, Virginia, on April 12, 1865", I would think that he was not a diserter but had been discharged by his commanding General. It looks like he had been "taken into custody' by union troops and given an option: take the oath or stay in prison. At that point in time, after 4 years of war; Lee's Army surrendered [4/9/1865], Johnston's Army surrendered [about the same time], I think I'd head for home and swear to any oath the union wanted me to swear to, just to get home.

"The Oath of Allegiance" means that he swears loyalty to the uS government and that he will practice the arts of war no more - he'll be a good little citizen from now on. With this assurance he was paroled to go home and back to farming or whatever.

Almost sounds like Russia and their revolution, doesn't it.