Thinking about Teague

I thought the Kathy Baker and James Gammon characters were established as respected members of the community. Regardless of Teague making an announcement that he was authorized to hunt down deserters, it seems there would have been some kind of backlash when word got out that Teague and his crew were torturing and murdering the locals in cold blood.

(Also, I think that surely by then, everyone would have been so beaten down and broken by the war and all the suffering, the general population would not begrudge one of their own being reunited with their children. But I can't speak to that with any certainty--there was so much brutality, affecting everyone; it's hard to speculate whether there would be generosity or bitterness.)