"John S. Preston, Superintendent of the Bureau of Conscription, stated in February 1865 that there were over 100,000 deserters scattered throughout the Confederacy, and compilations from other sources indicate that this estimate is conservative. But as stated previously, figures for desertion only tell part of the story; unfortunately. due to lack of data covering absence other than desertion, the complete tale cannot be told.
There is significant information, however, in a composite tabulation prepared by the War Department from the last returns sent in by the various armies. This compilation shows a total of 198,494 officers and men absent and only 160,198 present in the armies of the Confederacy on the eve of surrender. This figure for absentees includes of course those excused for wounds, sickness and other legitimate purposes, but even so, it is shamefully large. Interpreted most generously. Available evidence is such as to merit the observation that months before Appomattox the Confederacy's doom was plainly written in the ever swelling tide of men who were unpatriotically taking leave of their comrades-in-arms."
For the record Bell Irvin Wiley was professor emeritus of history at Emory University (Atlanta, Georgia) and one of America's preeminent Civil War historians.