I have seven Confederate ancestors; five from Mississippi and one each from Tennessee and Alabama. I recently discovered some interesting information on my TN CSA soldier, Isaac Robert "Bob" HIGGINBOTHAM. He was born September 31, 1834 in Franklin co. TN to Benjamin Isaac HIGGINBOTHAM and Catherine VAN ZANDT. On August 7, 1856 he married Eliza Jane TALLEY and they had two sons born in 1858 and 1859. The family appears on the 1860 Franklin co. TN census:

Isaac R. Higginbotham 25 M Farmer TN
Eliza J. 18 F TN
Benjamin J. 2 M TN
Wm. H. 6mo. M TN

I found him listed on the Confederate Muster Roll for Captain C.H. BEAN 41st Reg't., Co. G. 26 Nov. 1861 to the 26th Nov. 1862. TSLA, Mf Roll No. 2, as a private. His listing is: HIGGINBOTHAM, I.R., age 26.

I then looked up his pension record on the ADAH. His record is Alabama pension record #9464, Cherokee County. According to this record, he enlisted November 26, 1861, at Trousdale. He then deserted November 13, 1863 near Chattanooga, TN. The witnesses were Jacob Tipps and G. R. Scivally (both fellow soldiers in 41st TN Company G). He must've returned home to his wife in Franklin co., as they had a daughter born in October 1864. Another son was born in 1866 and named Robert Lee HIGGINBOTHAM, evidently after Robert E. Lee. After his wife died in 1869, he remarried and moved to Alabama. Isaac died in 1928.

I have a photograph of Isaac: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~byzantium/bobhigg.jpg

No one in my family ever mentioned that Isaac had deserted -- my great-uncle is a very dedicated genealogist who literally "wrote the book" on this Higginbotham family, and he never, ever mentioned this incident.