The Soldier Swap: How Some Confederate Troops Got Leave

John Lewis Elliot's last letter
(October, 1863)

When we think of Civil War soldiers, we often imagine dedicated fighters staying in the ranks until duty was fulfilled. But one little-known practice gave troops a brief chance at escaping the trenches—recruiting a substitute to secure a furlough.

In October 1863, Confederate soldier John Lewis Elliott - stationed near Chattanooga, Tennessee - wrote to his wife describing this unofficial system of recruitment. Unable to get a furlough, Elliott was told by his captain that if he could find someone to enlist in his place, he could receive 40 days of leave to return home.

Elliott immediately asked his wife about Robert Scruggs, a 16-year-old boy whose mother refused to send him off to war. The captain, Elliot wrote, warned that Scruggs would likely be conscripted soon anyway. 

[The captain] says if she knew what was best, she would let him come for he says they will take him anyhow before long and and then they would send him just anywhere they pleased so she had better let him come here where he has some friends. So I will ensure her that if she will let him come here as a recruit for me, I will be a friend to him as long as we both live.

This exchange raises intriguing questions about the Civil War furlough system and the extent of recruitment loopholes. Until this letter, the standard procedure seemed simple: Request leave from a commander and hope for approval. But with the South facing a growing manpower crisis, did the officers begin crafting their own solutions?

Was recruiting a substitute to take one’s place for 40 days of leave a common practice in the Confederate armies, or just a rare workaround among some companies or regiments? Did generals quietly endorse these deals—permitting soldiers to negotiate replacements - to maintain both their fighting numbers and to keep up troop morale?

If this method was quietly accepted, it suggests a deeper flexibility (or desperation) in Confederate efforts to maintain their manpower levels, one that blurred the lines between official policy and battlefield improvisation.

Beyond recruitment, Elliott’s letter paints a detailed picture of camp life—fresh meat from the mountains, bouts of illness, and a longing for family. He mentions gifts of tobacco from home, a gesture that carried deep emotional value for soldiers facing the monotony and hardship of war.

Most strikingly, Elliott shares a hopeful belief that the war might end soon. Many soldiers clung to the possibility of foreign intervention by England or a final Confederate victory, unaware that two grueling years of battles - and deaths - still lay ahead.

His words remind us that war was not just fought with weapons, but with strategy, survival, and personal sacrifice. The recruit-for-furlough system may not be widely known, but it offers a rare glimpse into how soldiers sought relief from their endless duty—and how young boys, like Scruggs, were drawn into the conflict, whether they wanted to be or not.

But for John Lewis Elliott, the promise of 40 days of leave to see his family was never fulfilled. Two weeks after writing this letter he was wounded at the Battle of Wauhatchie on October 29, 1863 - a relatively minor skirmish that turned out to be the last best chance for the Confederates to prevent the Union from reinforcing Chattanooga. He died of his wounds on November 28th at Oliver Hospital in LaGrange, Georgia.

His remains now lie buried in the “Stonewall Confederate Cemetery” in LaGrange. But Elliot's words remain—a testament to the quiet desperation of war and a haunting reminder of the fragile hopes of those fighting men who grasped whatever brief moments of respite they could find.

There are millions of stories from the Irrepressible Conflict. This was just one of them.

Mac

Five letters written by John Lewis Elliott (1831-1863) survived. Elliot, the son of Lewis M. Elliott (1802-1881) and Winniford Weston Edgar (1805-1898), married to Ann Neal Caminade in 1853. They had five children by the time he enlisted to serve in Co. B, 1st South Carolina Palmetto Sharpshooters. [1]

Works Cited

[1] "John Lewis Elliot to his Wife, Ann (Caminade) Elliot". Spared & Shared: Real History From the Pen of Those Who Lived It - Posted September 26, 2022. Retrieved April 30, 2025.