premise: Those he had ever cared about he could list on the fingers of one sun-browned, rein-hardened hand: Cousin Meredith; her son Shelly he had died at Chickamauga between one short breath and the next Shelly's younger brother Boyd, who had run away to join Morgan, too, in the sunset of the raider's career; and Anse, whom he had believed dead until this past hour.
hypothesis: Due to the isolation he had experience, he didn't care about many people.