AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF JOHN F. LACEY 415 



At Brownsville we met Cortina, the Liberal leader, and 

 Mejia, the Imperial general, who was afterwards shot at 

 Queretaro with Maximilian and Miramon. Mejia was a 

 full blooded Aztec. Cortina had been a bandit and was a 

 Spaniard in blood. Speaking of Mejia he said, "He is 

 one baboon dressed up in magnificent uniform." Poor 

 Mejia! He died like a hero, though they compelled him 

 to turn his back to the firing squad while Maximilian was 

 given the honor of facing his executioners. 



When I saw the three stone crosses marking the scene 

 of this execution in 1895, I was carried back thirty years 

 to the summer of 1865 at Brownsville and Matamoras. 



The breakbone fever, a kind of substitute for yellow 

 fever, broke out in July along the Rio Grande. Every- 

 body took it and I along with the rest. An order had 

 been issued by the War Department authorizing officers 

 holding commissions from the President to be sent home, 

 there to report for muster out. I availed myself of this 

 order and General Steele got out of a sick bed and wrote 

 a very complimentary general order relieving me from 

 duty and directing me to return to my home for dis- 

 charge. I crossed the Gulf of Mexico and took boat at 

 New Orleans for St. Louis and Keokuk, and home by 

 rail. On my arrival at home I spent a few days visiting 

 home and friends and then made arrangements for im- 

 mediately commencing the practice of the law. I was at 

 once employed in some cases and it was necessary that I 

 should be admitted to the bar before the approaching 

 term at Oskaloosa, so I went to Fairfield and there took 

 the examination and was duly admitted by Judge Wm. 

 Loughridge (afterwards congressman). 



I had been engaged to be married to Miss Mattie Newell 

 for more than three years and now there was no reason 

 for further delay in our marriage except the uncertainty 

 of being able to make a living. We resolved to take the 



