Like most Southern counties, Floyd County, Virginia, enthusiastically supported the Confederacy at the outset of the Civil War.
But by the end of the war, more than 25% of the Floyd County soldiers had deserted, a number that was more than twice the national average.
However, what really set Floyd apart from the rest of the South was its inhabitants' willingness to hide and protect deserters, even those who hailed from outside of their county.
In the fall of 1864, a regiment of Confederate re.