[131] Fifty-first, but on that occasion commanding the brigade, after relating, in a letter to his father, the circumstances of his death, says:—
His loss comes nearer to me and pains me more than any that has ever fallen on us. He was in many respects the foremost man among us, and in capacity and cultivation had few equals. He was a natural leader, and his courage was equal to any man's; and these qualities made him especially valuable as an officer and companion.In a letter to his Lieutenant-Colonel, then absent from injuries, Colonel Bradlee writes:—
No death among us has touched me like Hall's. He was the most gallant man I ever saw, and a splendid fellow in all respects. His conduct in this affair came as fully to the heroic as anything I can imagine. The Rebel officers whom we met under a flag of truce to recover our dead said, “ He was a very gallant fellow.” They had noticed him before he fell, and promised to get his sword and return it to me, as a mark of respect for his bravery.The following testimony comes from the most intimate of his associates in arms:—
During the three years and more of our intimacy, associated with him as I was in recruiting expeditions, in camp, in the march, on the field, I never knew him, however great the provocation, use a profane or passionate or hasty word towards a soldier, while at the same time he stood high as a disciplinarian. Though fresh from the retirement of the student, and accustomed to the refinements of social life, he at once, by his noble sincerity and disinterested honesty, won the admiration and respect and love of those unpolished but brave men from the Western farms, who fought with him at New Madrid, Farmington, and Stone River, and wept at his supposed loss at Chickamauga. A rough, swearing teamster, of his regiment, in telling one of his capture and probable death, said, with tears, “ I would n't have cared much if it had been any other man.” His good nature and original humor made his society universally desirable; and many a wet bivouac, dreary tent, and ill supplied table were made endurable by the sunshine of his disposition. He flinched from no duty, no hardship, no responsibility, no danger. From the time he entered the service till his death, he was never off duty a day, excepting when compelled by a severe
