 They burned his homestead and farm as an example to others, leaving his family destitute.As the ranks of deserters swelled after the Union was victorious in the Siege of Vicksburg, Confederate authorities began receiving reports that deserters in the Jones County area were looting and burning houses.A local quartermaster, Captain W. J. Bryant, reported that "the deserters have overrun and taken possession of the country, in many cases exiling the good and loyal citizens or shooting them in cold blood on their own door-sills."