Mike --

Article 3 of the original convention required each Confederate officer and man "to give his individual obligation in writing not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly released from this obligation."

General Schofield is referring to terms of the convention concerning individual paroles. Article V of the supplemental terms states that paroles of officers and men must be "signed by their immediate commanders". Conventional measures held that a Federal officer had to validate each parole, but Schofield agreed to forgo that requirement for documents signed by regimental commanders.

Here are further details from Ser. I, Vol. XLVII/3, pp. 336-37, 354 & 481-82.

Greensborough, April 28, 1865.
General Johnston writes,

I very gladly accept your generous offer of food for the troops here, and have directed the trains, which are to bring it up, to go down loaded with Government cotton, which is here. One of the cavalry brigades reported to have moved westward from the Yadkin has returned. Some 3,000 cavalry was collected near Charlotte and on the Catawba, including two brigades from East Tennessee. The commanding officer expressed his readiness to obey the terms of the convention, but has since left Charlotte, and I have not yet learned where his troops are.

Raleigh, April 30, 1865.
General Schofield responds,

I apprehend that the failure of so large a portion of your troops, especially cavalry, to comply with the terms of the convention will give us no little trouble, and keep the country in a disturbed condition for a long time. But we must deal with them as best we can.

Raleigh, N. C., May 12, 1865.
General Schofield reports,

I send you by a special messenger the rolls of General J. E. Johnston's army, surrendered to you by the convention of April 26; also a consolidated return made from the rolls. The number surrendered and paroled in North Carolina is 40 general officers and 36,971 subordinate officers and men. This number does not embrace the cavalry which went south under orders from Davis, as his escort, and since surrendered to General Wilson in Georgia, nor the men who went home during the suspension of hostilities without waiting for their paroles.

We both agree that unknown numbers of Confederates left before paroles could be issued, including most of Wheeler's and Hampton's cavalry. Many of these units simply disbanded (like the troops you mentioned in Texas) and were never paroled. Schofield listed 37,000 Confederate officers and men who received paroles in North Carolina. The number on record must represent a large majority of Johnston's infantry and artillery commands.

Most of us will also agree that the treatment of soldiers who surrendered and their experiences on the way home has not been properly studied. I will review relevant passages from the book you mentioned.