408 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



in the affection of the army may be illustrated by an in- 

 cident in my own experience. At Jenkins Ferry our 

 train was hopelessly mired down and the wagons were 

 destroyed and mules taken across the river to keep them 

 from falling into the hands of the enemy. My small 

 valise was in the headquarters wagon and I supposed had 

 been buried with the wagon. A few days after arrival 

 at Little Rock, after the battle, I met a soldier on the 

 street who said to me that he had found the valise in the 

 mud and had put it in an ambulance and brought it with 

 him to Little Rock. 



Said he, "I saw your name on it and I thought if I 

 could do anything for General Rice, or any one connected 

 with him that it was my duty to do so." I keep that 

 little old canvas covered valise yet as a memento of that 

 campaign. 



Rice 's first fight in the campaign was with Shelby, who 

 attacked the rear guard April 2d, at the Terre Noir 

 Creek. April 4th he had another fight with Marmaduke 

 at Elkins Ford on the Little Missouri. April 10th he had 

 a fight at Prairie d'Anne; April 15th at Poison Springs, 

 and finally the bloody battle of Jenkins Ferry April 30th. 

 I was hit by a minie ball during the battle, but the rain 

 was falling and I had a poncho over my shoulders and 

 the poncho turned the bullet aside or I should have been 

 killed, as the ball struck me fair in the right side, just 

 above the point of the hip. I wrote an account of Gen- 

 eral Rice at Jenkins Ferry which is published in the 

 Annals of Ioiva, and also an article on General Steele 

 in the same publication. 



My promotion as assistant adjutant-general of volun- 

 teers had not yet been received when Rice died, but a 

 few days after. I was still first lieutenant of Company 

 C, Thirty-third Iowa, when I returned to Little Rock. T 



