“And of course, a disproportionate percentage of the best and brightest leaders of the federal army deserted to fight for the rebels.”
Wow, you sure make no bones about what side you support. For the record, those leaders resigned their commissions (which was their right as officers) and did NOT desert.
I should have said they deserted the Union, which is a fact, not that they deserted from the Army.
The comment was in the context of a reply to a comment in which the author was trying to imply that the early fighting in the war consisted of the professional federal army attempting to crush the “people’s militia” fighting for freedom. That’s a serioius distortion of the facts.