AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN F. LACEY 41 1 



got out of reach of the enemy's guns. When the soldier 

 and I got up I saw that the marble top of the table lay 

 some distance away and we had simply the legs and 

 frame work of the table, covered with a woolen cloth, 

 turned up between us and the rebel musketry. But we 

 had felt safe — in our minds. 



Notwithstanding that the boat was fairly riddled with 

 bullets no one happened to be hit. The pilot hugged 

 close to the shore, keeping inside his armor of boiler iron 

 but not getting close enough for the enemy to jump 

 aboard. 



At Memphis I spent a few hours while waiting for an 

 upriver boat and while there saw one of my old friends 

 of the state of Iowa, Captain C. R. Searle, who had been 

 badly wounded a few days before by General Forrest's 

 men on their raid into Memphis. I stopped at the Gay- 

 oso Hotel where Forrest had ridden into the office and 

 one of his staff had dismounted and registered "Gen. N. 

 B. Forrest & Staff." 



I took the first boat for St. Louis where I presented 

 my letter to General Rosecrans and after a long inter- 

 view he sent me to A. J. Smith at Franklin. My docu- 

 ments were of value to General Smith but not worth as 

 much as General Steele had supposed, for Price reorgan- 

 ized his army en route, changing brigades and divisions 

 in such a way that the value of the information was 

 much weakened. 



I returned to Steele with letter of thanks from General 

 Smith and resumed my work. Steele sent copies of my 

 reports to General Canby, who at once detailed an officer 

 for similar work upon his staff and inaugurated my sys- 

 tem throughout the military division of the Mississippi. 

 I was gratified to see that my labors were thus appre- 

 ciated by skilled West Point soldiers such as Canby and 

 Steele. I was only twenty-three years old, but I found 



