Emory Upton’s Twenty-six: Desertion and Divided Loyalty of U.S. Army Soldiers, 1860–1861

Enlisted soldiers of the U.S. Regular Army formed the bulk of America’s armed forces before the Civil War (1861–1865). A consensus has emerged that the prewar army’s enlisted men showed no divided loyalties and only twenty-six served in the Confederate Army; but the army’s enlisted soldiers, just like its officers, reacted to the Civil War in varying ways. An analysis of desertion during the secession crisis and first months of the war reveals that many soldiers were just as conflicted as the officer corps. Evidence suggests more than 500 Regular Army soldiers “went South” and served in the Confederate Army.