AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN F. LACEY 401 



gether and this short furlough was the last of our pleas- 

 ant personal associations. 



The day we started home we got the news of Grant's 

 battle at Belmont and of the killing and wounding of 

 many of my good friends in the Seventh Iowa. 



Thus ended my connections with the old Third Iowa, 

 as gallant a body of men as ever shouldered muskets. 

 Many of them served in other organizations. Major 

 Stone became colonel of the Twenty-second Iowa and gov- 

 ernor of Iowa. Scott became colonel of the Thirty-sec- 

 ond Iowa; Trumbull colonel of the Ninth Iowa Cavalry 

 and then brigadier-general. 



The regiment had a great reputation for its fighting 

 qualities and its history would be a record of the war in 

 the west and thence with Sherman till the name of the 

 regiment was merged in that of the Second Iowa. Tin- 

 boys were given to foraging. A story is told which I 

 do not vouch for. One day in Mississippi an old planter 

 came out to the roadside and complained to General Sher- 

 man. Said he, ''Your men have taken my niggers, my 

 mules, my turkeys, my chickens, sir, but thank God, sir, 

 there is one thing they cannot deprive me of, sir ; I still 

 have my hope of Heaven." 



Sherman replied, "Don't be sure about that for the 

 Third Iowa Infantry will be along here in a few min- 

 utes." 



It was said of the regiment that they could catch a 

 hog, skin him and divide him without coming to a halt or 

 breaking ranks. 



These stories were fabrications, but the fact remains 

 that the old Third Iowa were pretty skillful at foraging. 



I watched the subsequent career of the old regiment 

 with great pride. At Shiloh, at the Hatchie, at Vicks- 

 burg, on the Atlanta campaign they were always heard 

 from in the thickest of the fray. 



