Were Civil War deserters really branded on their face with a hot iron? If that's the punishment for cowardice, then I can understand why deserters would have preferred surrendering to the other side.
shareYes that was done by the Union army although how often I'm not sure. Surrendering to the enemy sounds like a tempting alternative, but it almost always meant starvation or fatal disease in a filthy overcrowded prison camp. I honestly don't know which was worse.
shareYes, it was done for a while. But I am sure the practice got dropped soon thereafter by imprisoning and then throwing them out of the army.
"At the beginning of the war flogging was a legal punishment, but it was banned in the US Army in August 1861 and in the Confederate Army in August 1862. Thereafter officers did occasionally have their men flogged, but this usually ended up with the officer facing a court-martial. Branding, however, remained legal throughout the war. Deserters were branded, usually on the forehead, cheek, hand, or hip, with the first letter of their crime. ’D’ for deserter, ’C’ for cowardice, ’T’ for thief, or ’W’ for worthlessness. Not all branding was done with hot irons; indelible ink was often used instead."