People do not live in vacuums. 

George A. Trautvetter was not the only man who deserted Company H of the 49th Illinois on 26 July 1865.

In fact, there are four men who appear in the Adjutant General’s report as having deserted on that date:

• William Doerges
• Henry Doerges
• Adam Enders
• George A. Trautvetter

All four men are listed with a residence of Warsaw, Illinois. Their unit was in Kansas and headed to Ft. Kearney, Nebraska, at the time they deserted. The fact that all four deserted on the same day and were from the same place cannot be a coincidence.

 

The four were all German natives of varying ages. The 1860 census for Hancock County, Illinois, shows them as:

• Adam Enders, aged 32, stone mason, born , living in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois (family 4446)
• William Doeurges, aged 14, born in Hanover, living in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois (family 4820)
• Henry Doeurges, aged 12, born in Hanover, living in Warsaw, Hancock County, Illinois (family 4820)
• George Trautvetter, aged 17, born in Saxony, living in Rocky Run Township, Hancock County, Illinois (family 3516)

It seems fairly reasonable that all four German natives in the same unit who enlisted from the same town all headed back to Illinois on the same day.

It is important to remember that desertion was not uncommon during the Civil War and that the war was over.