If You Thought the Hilarities of Military Bureaucracy were a post-WW2 Development ...

... I have an old family tale to tell. I don't know for sure that it's true, but I heard it from a parent and grandparent about a great-great-grandparent, so apparently there was some kind of impression that has carried down for four generations now.

Supposedly one of my great-great-grandfathers was discharged from the Army of the Tennessee after being wounded in Mississippi (for some reason I've long believed it was during the Meridian campaign, but I don't know if that was ever actually said), and had to walk back home to Missouri.

Supposedly he was arrested on suspicion of desertion as he made his way home, and held for a week until it could be verified that he was actually discharged.

And supposedly the wound he had received was that he had lost one leg from the knee down, and was hobbling home on crutches.

They arrested a one-legged man on crutches, on suspicion of desertion, and held him until the paperwork could be straightened out. And that was 150 years ago.