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A great Confederate general CDV of General Roger Hanson. A Kentucky general who commanded the Kentucky brigade of John C. Breckinridge's division, which he lead at the battle of Stone's River. Hanson was mortally wounded on January 2, 1863, and died two days later in a house near the battlefield. He is buried in Lexington, KY. A wonderful full standing photograph. The backmark is E. & H.T. Anthony, 501 Broadway, New York.
Brigadier-General Roger W. Hanson was one of those gallant Kentuckians who, believing that the cause of the South was the cause of constitutional liberty, and fearing that the centralizing tendencies of the republican party would lead to the complete overthrow of the sovereignty of the States, left home and friends and, becoming an exile from his native State, threw his whole heart and soul into the struggle of the South for separate independence. His natural ability as a leader of men brought him to the front and he became colonel of the Second Kentucky infantry, commissioned September 3, 1861. His regiment was assigned to the Confederate army in central Kentucky, first under command of General Buckner. In the battle of Fort Donelson, amid a pitiless tempest of rain, snow and sleet and the more dreadful storm of shot and shell, Hanson and his men were distinguished for bravery and steady fighting, and are frequently mentioned in the official reports. It was late in the year when Colonel Hanson was exchanged. On the 13th of December, 1862, he was commissioned brigadier-general in the provisional army of the Confederate States. On the 3ist of the same month came the tremendous battle of Murfreesboro, in which Hanson commanded the Kentucky brigade of Breckinridge's division. On the ad of January Bragg noticed that Beatty's Federal brigade east of Stone's river enfiladed Polk's line in its new position. Bragg ordered Breckinridge to take his division and dislodge these troops. Lieut.-Col. S. C. Kniffin, of the staff of the Union General Crittenden, says: "In the assault that followed a brief cannonade, Hanson's left was thrown forward close to the river bank, with orders to fire once, then charge with the bayonet. On the right of Beatty was Col. S. W. Price's brigade, and the charge made by Hanson's Sixth Kentucky was met by Price's Eighth Kentucky regiment, followed by Hanson and Pillow in successive strokes from right to left of Beatty's lines. * * * Beatty ordered retreat, and assailants and assailed moved in a mass toward the river. * * * Crittenden, turning to his chief of artillery, said, 'Mendenhall, you must cover my men with your guns.' Never was there a more effective response to such a request. * * * In all, 58 pieces of artillery played upon the enemy. Not less than 100 shots per minute were fired. As the men swarmed down the slope they were mowed down by the score. Confederates were pinioned to the earth by falling branches. For a few minutes the brave fellows held their ground, hoping to advance, but the bank bristled with bayonets. Hanson was mortally wounded and his brigade lost 400 men." General Breckinridge in his official report says: "I cannot enumerate all the brave officers who fell, nor the living who nobly did their duty; yet I may be permitted to lament, in common with the army, the premature death of General Hanson, who received a mortal wound at the moment the enemy began to give way. Endeared to his friends by his private virtues and to his command by the vigilance with which he guarded its interest and honor, he was, by the universal testimony of his military associates, one of the finest officers that adorned the service of the Confederate States."