I have been off-line for over a week by downloading some "updates" to my software programs which turned out to be infected. When I get back up to speed, I can give some figures on the numbers in Gary's Brigade. Gary stated that when he got to Greensboro, N.C., he found 200 men of the Legion who were returning from furlough to remount; I suspect that that number included men of the 7 S.C. CAV as well. I seriously doubt that any men of the 7th Georgia CAV would be included. There were others in route. I have three separate sources of Legionaires who were en route back to the Brigade when they received notice of the surrender, one from the acting first sergeant of Company B, who was leading a detail of about ten men; one from a private in Company F who learned of the fall fo Richmond on 6 April at Chester, and wrote his father that he was still going on; he followed it up with another letter from Charlotte the following day, reiterating his determination to go on; and a third from a private in Company H, who with his cousin and a servant, got as far as central North Carolina, before turning back after learning of Lee's surrender. I am sure that there were many more who were in the process of returning. From what I can discover, desertion, even at this stage of the war, was not a significant problem in Gary's Brigade, although after the fall of Richmond a good many of the men of the 24th Virginia Cavalry and of the attached Surry Light Artillery did fall out. There are surviving first hand accounts of the retreat from Richmond from both of those units.

I have long suspected that desertion, both in the Federal and Southern armies, was closely related to unit leadership, in addition to other more researched factors. I have companies raised from essentially the same neighborhoods, one of which had no problem at all with desertion, and another which had, at least for the Legion, some problem. Its an interesting subject.