Desertion. Under American military law, desertion is the act of leaving one's service or duty without the intention of returning or being absent without authorization for more than a month.
In peacetime, desertion has been a continuing phenomenon in American military history, at least through the early twentieth century, although its extent has varied widely depending upon the circumstances facing the service people. Unlike European nations, the U.S. government had little control over its citizens, and deserters could escape relatively easily, particularly into the rural and frontier regions of the country. Low pay and poor conditions have contributed significantly to peacetime desertions.
The armed forces require enlisted men and women to serve tours of duty of specific duration. Unlike commissioned officers, enlisted personnel are not legally permitted to resign unilaterally. Thus, desertion constitutes an enlisted person's repudiation of his or her legal obligation.
A correlation has existed in peacetime between desertion rates and the business cycle. When the country experienced economic depression and high unemployment, fewer people abandoned the service. Yet in an expanding economy, with workers in demand and wage scales increasing, many more service men and women have forsaken the high job security but lesser monetary rewards of the military.
The highest peacetime desertion rates in American history were reached during periods of economic growth in the 1820s, early 1850s, early 1870s, the 1880s, early 1900s, and the 1920s, when the annual flow of deserters averaged between 7 and 15 percent of the U.S. Army. A peak of 32.6 percent was recorded in 1871, when 8,800 of the 27,010 enlisted men deserted in protest against a pay cut. (By contrast, the desertion rate in the British army was only about 2 percent.) Lured by higher civilian wages and prodded by miserable living conditions—low pay, poor food, inadequate amenities, and boredom—on many frontier western outposts, a total of 88,475 soldiers (one‐third of the men recruited by the army) deserted between 1867 and 1891.
The peacetime navy had its own desertion problems. In the nineteenth century, many of the enlisted men had grim personal backgrounds or criminal records or were foreigners with little loyalty to the United States. A rigid class system and iron discipline contributed to high rates of alcoholism and desertion. In 1880, there were 1,000 desertions from an enlisted force of 8,500 seamen.
During wartime, desertion rates in all the military services have varied widely but have generally been lower than in peacetime—perhaps reflecting the increased numbers of service people, national spirit, and more severe penalties prescribed for combat desertion. The end of hostilities, however, generally was accompanied by a dramatic flight from the military. After almost every war, the desertion rate doubled temporarily as many regular enlisted personnel joined other Americans in returning to peacetime pursuits. The variation in wartime desertion rates seems to result from differences in public sentiment and prospects for military success. Although many factors are involved, generally the more swift and victorious the campaign and the more popular the conflict, the lower the desertion rate. Defeat and disagreement or disillusionment about a war have been accompanied by a higher incidence of desertion.
In the
Revolutionary War, desertion depleted both the state militias and the Continental army after such reverses as the British seizures of New York City and Philadelphia; at spring planting or fall harvesting times, when farmer‐soldiers returned to their fields; and as veterans deserted in order to reenlist, seeking the increased bounties of cash or land that the states offered new enlistees. Widespread desertion, even in the midst of battle, plagued the military during the setbacks of the
War of 1812. In the
Mexican War, 6,825 men, or nearly 7 percent of the army, deserted; and one unit of the Mexican Army, the San Patricio Artillery Battalion, was composed of American deserters.
The
Civil War produced the highest American wartime desertion rates because of its bloody battles, new enlistment bounties, and the relative ease with which deserters could escape capture, particularly in the mountain regions. The Union armies recorded 278,644 cases of desertion, representing 11 percent of the troops. As the Confederate military situation deteriorated, desertion reached epidemic proportions. The Appalachian Mountains, Florida swamps, and Texas chaparral became the domain of armed bands of Southern deserters. In the final year of the war, whole companies and regiments, sometimes with most of their officers, left together to return to their homes. In all, Confederate deserters numbered 104,428, or 10 percent of the South's armies.
The brief and successful
Spanish‐American War resulted in 5,285 desertions, or less than 2 percent of the armed forces in 1898. However, the rate climbed to 4 percent during the long and arduous Philippine War between 1900 and 1902. In World War I, because
conscription regulations classified any draftee failing to report for induction at the prescribed time as a deserter, the records of 1917–18 showed 363,022 deserters, who would have been more appropriately designated draft evaders. Traditionally defined deserters amounted to 21,282, or less than 1 percent of the army in World War I.
In World War II, desertion rates reached 6.3 percent of the armed forces in 1944, and during the American reverses at the
Battle of the Bulge, the army executed one American soldier, Private Ernie Slovik, for desertion in the face of the enemy as an example to other troops. Desertion rates dropped to 4.5 percent in 1945. During the
Korean War, the use of short‐term service and the rotation system helped keep desertion rates down to 1.4 percent of the armed forces in fiscal year (FY) 1951 and to 2.2 percent or 31,041 in FY 1953.
The divisive
Vietnam War generated the highest percentage of wartime desertion since the Civil War. From 13,177 cases—or 1.6 percent of the armed forces—in FY 1965, the annual desertion statistics mounted to 2.9 percent in FY 1968, 4.2 percent in FY 1969, 5.2 percent in FY 1970, and 7.4 percent (79,027 incidents of desertion) in FY 1971. Like the draft resisters from this same war, many deserters sought sanctuary in Canada, Mexico, or Sweden. In 1974, the Defense Department reported that between 1 July 1966 and 31 December 1973, there had been 503,926 incidents of desertion in all services during the Vietnam War.
The end of the draft and the Vietnam War, together with the enhancement of pay and living conditions in the
All‐Volunteer Force, dramatically reduced desertions, although there was somewhat of another upsurge during
the Persian Gulf War (1991).
[See also
Military Justice;
Morale, Troop.]
Bibliography
Ella Lonn , Desertion During the Civil War, 1928, 1966;
William B. Huie , The Execution of Private Slovik, 1954, 1991;
Russell F. Weigley , History of the United States Army, 1967;
Jack D. Foner , The United States Soldier between the Two Wars: Army Life and Reforms, 1865–1898, 1968;
Thomas L. Hayes , American Deserters in Sweden, 1971;
Robert L. Alotta , Stop the Evil: A Civil War History of Desertion and Murder, 1978;
Edward M. Coffman , The Old Army: A Portrait of the American Army in Peacetime, 1784–1898, 1986.
John Whiteclay Chambers II
