Daniel Hagman

Daniel Hagman

Rifleman Daniel Hagman is the oldest man in Sharpe's company and, over the entire course of the novels, its best marksman. Hagman is one of the Chosen Men and appears in nearly all the original Sharpe novels and television series. Sharpe initially thought of Hagman as being too lazy to be considered for sergeant. Although he doesn't know exactly when he was born, he is described as being between forty and fifty years old, and missing most of his teeth. He has "a face like a grave-digger, hair down to his shoulder blades" (Sharpe's Skirmish). He had been a poacher in Cheshire, as had been his father. When caught, he was given the choice of prison or the army. He chose the army, leaving his wife, a "God-damned sawney mouthed bitch of a sodding witch" behind (Sharpe's Rifles). Sharpe wondered how he'd ever been caught since he had an uncanny ability to find his way in the dark and assumed he must have been drunk (Sharpe's Gold). Hagman was one of the very few who had not got insensibly drunk with the rest of the company in Sharpe's Rifles.