Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 7.djvu/442

Rh officer and a Christian gentleman. I had been all over his line with him the day before his death, and decided on some changes I wished made. He had just received the telegram announcing the birth of his daughter, and expected to visit his wife the next day. Our loss is heavy, but his gain great. May his wife, whom he loved so tenderly, be comforted in the recollection of his many virtues, his piety, his worth, his love."

Brigadier-General James Hagan was born in Ireland in 1821, and came with his parents to America in his infancy. The family settled in Pennsylvania, where his father engaged in farming. So James Hagan grew up to manhood in that State. He then entered business life with his uncle, John Hagan, a rich merchant of New Orleans, and soon afterward became connected with a branch of his uncle's house in the city of Mobile. At the beginning of the war with Mexico he and other gallant young men from Alabama joined Colonel Hays' Texas Rangers, and were engaged in the storming of Monterey. Subsequently commissioned captain of the Third dragoons, he served in that rank in the army of General Taylor. Returning from Mexico, he gave his attention to planting. When the war between the States began, he gave his sympathy and active support to the cause of his adopted State. He entered the army as captain of a cavalry company, from Mobile county. Shortly after he was commissioned major in a proposed regiment, of which Gen. Wirt Adams was appointed colonel. When, a short while after the battle of Shiloh, the Third Alabama cavalry was organized, he was appointed its colonel. From that time until the close of the long war he was on constant and active duty in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, and the Carolinas, and during a large part of the last two years commanded a cavalry brigade under General Wheeler, consisting of the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth and Fifty-first Alabama regiments, and Twelfth battalion.