A Higher Duty

This book addresses the most important issues associated with Confederate desertion. How many soldiers actually deserted, when did they desert, and why? What does Confederate desertion say about Confederate nationalism and the war effort? Mark A. Weitz has taken his argument beyond the obvious reasons for desertion-that war is a horrific and cruel experience--and examined the emotional and psychological reasons that might induce a soldier to desert. Just as loyalty to his fellow soldiers might influence a man to charge into a hail of lead, loyalty to his wife and family could also lead him to risk a firing squad in order to return home.

Mark A. Weitz is the former director of the Civil War Era Studies Program at Gettysburg College. He is the author of More Damning than Slaughter: Desertion in the Confederate Army (Nebraska 2005).

"Using Georgia as a case study, Weitz offers a revisionist approach to standard interpretations of Confederate desertion patterns."--Choice "The topic of Confederate desertion remains one of the least well understood in the field of Civil War scholarship. Mark A. Weitz's study of desertion among Georgia's Confederate soldiers is a perceptive treatment of an important state that helps flesh out our understanding of why and when men left the ranks. With luck, this book will inspire further work on other Confederate states."--Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Confederate War "...an authoritative, impressive work. Well researched and convincingly argues, Higher Dutyaddresses a much-neglected aspect of Civil War history."--The Journal of Military History "Weitz makes a significant contribution to Civil War studies. This is a book that will be cited frequently and discussed often. It's a real winner."--Kenneth W. Noe, author of Southwest Virginia's Railroad: Modernization and the Sectional Crisis "Mark A. Weitz has produced an impressive work on an important and much neglected aspect of the Civil War. Well written and researched, it is one of the very few works that go straight to the heart of why the Confederacy lost the war."--David Williams, author of Rich Man's War: Class, Caste, and Confederate Defeat in the Lower Chattahoochee Valley