Thanks for the opportunity to clarify my earlier post. I wrote believing the soldier had taken the oath of allegiance after the war's end. That was my mistake. There's a world of difference between a prison oath taken in March 1865 versus one taken in May-June 1865. The Tennessee soldier's service file states that he petitioned to take the oath in March 1865. Confederate prisoners released later understood that the major Confederate armies had surrendered and fighting was over. Taking the oath under those conditions had no bearing on a soldier's loyalty.

I've looked over Gardner's service file twice and see nothing about taking an oath of allegiance. It does say "discharged" on Mar. 20, 1862, so he might have taken the oath. He could have been released on 'humanitarian' grounds -- we don't really know.

Here's the most important part about taking the oath during the war. Federal authorities could summarily execute any soldier with arms in hand who had previously signed an oath of allegiance to the United States. Anyone returning to the Confederate army after taking the oath who didn't understand the seriousness of their actions had to be a dim-wit or a die-hard Southern patriot. If Gardner really signed an oath and returned to the Confederate army knowing he could never surrender again, I would like to consider the man a true patriot. If he survived the war and applied for a pension, I would expect the board to do the same.