me
within his vortex. It proved more agreeable to men, who were really
modest, to take rank by the virtue of commissions rather than by the
force of impudence, and the example was better. General Hardee urged
that the commission should be made out as Major-General, but Mr. Davis
said, "I do not wish to give my boys all of their sugar plums at once."

At Bryantsville, in Kentucky, Colonel Joseph Wheeler had been appointed
Chief of Cavalry, and Morgan, Scott, Ashby--all of the cavalry
commanders had been ordered to report to him. Colonel Wheeler was a very
dashing officer, and had done excellent service, but he had neither the
experience nor the record of Morgan, and the latter did not fancy having
to serve under him. He was with Wheeler so little, however, in Kentucky,
that he found not much inconvenience from having a "Chief of cavalry" to
superintend him. Morgan was, of course, perfectly independent upon his
retreat out of Kentucky, and in his operations afterward in North Middle
Tennessee--indeed, with the exception of having to report to General
Breckinridge, while the latter was in command at Murfreesboro', and
afterward to the Commander-in-chief, he was perfectly independent until
a period even later than that of his promotion. But this is a subject
for a later chapter. A great many injudicious friends of Morgan were
inclined to attribute the delay of his promotion to prejudice upon the
part of Mr. Davis, against him in particular, and Kentuckians in
general.

There is no doubt but that General Morgan's free and easy way of
appointing his own officers and of conducting all of his military
affairs, as well as his intense aversion to subordinate positions, had
excited much official disapprobation and some indignation against him at
Richmond. He had been careless and dilatory, too, in making out and
forwarding the muster-rolls of his regiment, an omission which was
undoubtedly censurable, and unpardonable in the eyes of the _Pundits_ of
the War Department, with whom such papers were the gospels of military
government. General Morgan paid too little attention to matters of this
kind, essential to the transaction of military business, and the proper
conduct of the affairs of the army, and the authorities resented a
neglect that looked a good deal like contumacious disrespect. He was,
however, unlucky in this respect, to some extent, for when he
appreciated, which was not until after he had raised the greater portion
o