leader of a battalion of cavalry, he has no superior in the Rebel
ranks. His command of his men is supreme. While they admire his
generosity and manliness, sharing with them all the hardships of the
field, they fear his more than Napoleonic severity for any departure
from enjoined duty. His men narrate of him this--that upon one
occasion, when engaging in a battle, he directed one of his troopers
to perform a hazardous mission in the face of the enemy. The man did
not move. Morgan asked, in short quick words,

"Do you understand my orders?"

"Yes, captain, but I can not obey."

"Then, good-by," said Morgan, and in a moment the cavalryman fell
dead from his saddle. Turning to his men, he added, "Such be the
fate of every man disobeying orders in the face of an enemy."

No man ever hesitated after that to obey any command.

But Morgan is not without generosity to a foe. A Federal cavalryman
related to me, since my escape, an unusual act for an enemy. Losing
the command of his wounded horse, which goaded by pain plunged
wildly on, he was borne into the midst of Morgan's force. "Don't
shoot him!" cried Morgan to a dozen of his men who raised their
pistols. "Give him a chance for his life." The pistols were lowered
and the man sent back to his own lines unharmed. Few men have
appeared on either side in this contest who combine dash and
caution, intrepidity and calmness, boldness of plan with
self-possession in execution, as does Morgan. The feat reported of
him in Nashville, shortly after the Rebel army retreated through