Sometimes a soldier would be carried on the company roll as a deserter if he ended up missing on a march or in action and didn't answer roll call. Later they would show up with a good excuse and no action would be taken but it was too late to change the report. Other times they did desert and various actions taken depending on the unit they were with and why they were absent.

Drewry's Bluff must have been a trying time for some of the 38th. I reasearched a G.W. Newton in Co. D and he also deserted around that time. He was also from Pittsylvania county. Later died in the soldiers home in Ok.