all the more intensely, the more frequently
that he showed them that they could never deceive him nor attempt it
with impunity. Once, thinking that the health of his regiment was
getting too bad, and that many cases of illness, reported as severe,
were but ruses to escape doing duty, he published an order that from
that date "there should be but two sick men at the same time in each
company," and caused it to be rigidly enforced. No one who ever saw
Hanson can forget him. In stature he was a little under the medium
hight, and he was powerfully but ungracefully built. His bulky and
ungainly form indicated great but awkward strength. His shoulders were
huge, round, and stooping, and he sat on his horse in the attitude in
which a sick man bends over the fire. His head was large and perfectly
round. His complexion was fair and florid, and his eyes gray and full of
light. His strong and marked features, when he became excited, worked
strangely and apparently without being moved by the same influences, and
the alert movement of his head, at such moments, was in singular
contrast to his otherwise heavy inactive manner. His face, when he was
calm and giving careful attention to any thing said to him, wore a look
of exceeding sternness, enhanced by a peculiar twitch of the muscles of
the mouth and eye. He had a German face with all the Irish expressions.
A wound received in a duel had shortened one leg and gave him a singular
gait, something between a jerk and a roll. His voice was deep and
guttural, and his utterance rapid, decided, abrupt, like that of a man
who meant all that he said, and knew that it would produce an effect. No
one could look him in the eye and fail to perceive that he was every
inch a man--a strong, brave, manly nature looked out in every lineament
of his face. Captain Wickliffe attached his company to the regiment
which Colonel Hunt was organizing. Of the stragglers who had come out
with Captain Morgan, some went one way and some another--only eight or
ten remained with him. Although not yet in the Confederate service, he
at once commenced the active and daring work which laid the foundation
of his celebrity and brought him at once into general notice. The
cavalry which had been stationed there previously to his coming, had
confined themselves to doing picket duty, and had never sought or been
required to do other service. This monotonous work, altogether devoid of
excitement, did not accord with his nature,