412 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



myself freely called upon for the most difficult work on 

 the staff. Colonel Wood of the Eleventh Missouri Cav- 

 alry now offered me a position as major in his regiment. 

 General E. A. Carr also offered me a position as his ad- 

 jutant-general. Steele was relieved from the command 

 of the department and ordered to report to General Can- 

 by for service in the Mobile campaign. As my place was 

 only temporary with Steele I thought best to consult him 

 about these two offers. He promptly replied, "My pres- 

 ent staff with but few exceptions is attached to the De- 

 partment of Arkansas. You are not one of the regular 

 corps of staff officers so assigned by the War Department 

 and I want you to go with me to my new field as my 

 adjutant-general. ' ' 



This was a much better position than either of the 

 others tendered and I accepted and in December, 1864, 

 went with the general to New Orleans and reported to 

 Canby. On January 1, 1865, I was required to report to 

 the adjutant-general of the army what duty I was on and 

 as for a few days General Steele was unassigned I re- 

 ported that fact and later on in April, while in the trench- 

 es besieging Blakely and when I was adjutant-general of 

 Steele's command of about 20,000 men, I received an or- 

 der from the War Department to go to Virginia and re- 

 port for duty to General Godfrey Weitzel of the Twen- 

 ty-fifth Corps (colored). This is not, however, in the 

 chronological order of my story. I laid the order before 

 General Steele and he took the liberty to retain me and 

 asked the War Department to revoke the order as he 

 could not spare me. 



Later on, General Weitzel reported to me as Steele's 

 adjutant-general in Texas where Weitzel was sent to join 

 and report to Steele. I there complied with the order 

 formally. Weitzel told me to stay with Steele and he 

 would report to me. But to return: Canby directed 



