AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN F. LACEY 405 



On our return to Helena, we again resumed our old 

 camp and commenced a thorough system of fortifications. 

 One side trip to Cotton Plant, Arkansas, was made by 

 the regiment. In May, 18G3, Captain A. J. Comstock 

 recommended me for the position of first lieutenant, vice 

 R. F. Burden, who resigned. This took me out of the 

 non-commissioned staff and put me in a new company. 

 I accepted the offer, knowing that it meant considerable 

 hostility on the part of the men with whom I must serve 

 as there were some excellent men in the company who 

 aspired to the same position, and my promotion over the 

 second lieutenant was not a very pleasing thing to that 

 official. 



I knew that only two things would reconcile the men 

 to this obtrusion of a new man into the second place in 

 the company ; one was active, persistent, and efficient at- 

 tention to all the wants of the men and the demonstra- 

 tion of fitness which would satisfy them that I was the 

 right man for the place. The other was a demonstration 

 of nerve and coolness in danger, a thing which men al- 

 ways admire even in their enemies. 



The first requirement I had a good chance to fill by as 

 earnest work as any officer ever did in behalf of his men, 

 but no engagement occurred while I served with the 

 company. Colonel Rice was assigned to the command of 

 a brigade and detailed me as acting assistant adjutant- 

 general of the brigade and from that time until his death 

 I was always at my post performing this duty. 



In the battle of Helena, July 4, 1863, Colonel Rice com- 

 manded on the right wing. The Thirty-third Iowa of 

 his brigade happened to be in the center and bore the 

 brunt of the battle. Just as Price's forces made their 

 gallant charge in the center I was in Battery A, from 

 which I could overlook the whole battle. The charge of 



