Drawing from the experiences of 3,126 enlisted men from North Carolina who fought for the Confederacy in the U.S. Civil War, this article focuses on the determinants of desertion.I argue that men deserted because their identity as Southerners was eroded by an emergent localism, sustained and organized within the Confederate army.Desertion rates were highest in companies that evidenced a high degree of local homogeneity -company solidarity thus bred rather than reduced desertion rates.There is no supportfor any of the historical models of desertion that search for individual-level determinants, such as social class, occupation, status, family structure, age, or time of enlistment.Finally, contextual variables seem to be weak proxiesfor the central variable accounting for desertion -the emergence of a localist identity.Mother there is soldiers deserting every day & I hope that they will continue to desert until this war is ended.Private T.W. Gaither, April 3, 1863 (Hardy n.d.)In the final months of World War II, German soldiers continued to oppose the Allied forces despite overwhelming odds and knowledge that they faced certain defeat (Shils & Janowitz 1948).In Vietnam and Afghanistan, small and poorly supplied resistance armies ultimately defeated, in struggles that lasted for years, armed forces with vast material and manpower resources at their disposal.In marked contrast, the Confederate South, in control of resources and manpower that, relative to the opposing forces, were greater than those of numerous successful resistance movements, was overwhelmed by Union forces within 18 months of its first major military setbacks.Why did the South lose the Civil War, and why did it lose so quickly??i The University of North Carolina Press Social Forces, December 1991, 70(2):321-342 *Tim Long, Kathy Giuffre, andMichael McKenna assisted with the collection of data.Ri
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