His service in war was well done. He was made a lieutenant at the beginning and promoted to major on the field of battle at Seven Pines. He served under General Joseph E. Johnston until the latter surrendered, some time after Appomattox.
When the war was ended he went North to do a brave thing. He spoke through Pennsylvania and Maryland, pleading for funds to bury and put grave stones over the Confederate dead. He had experiences there. But his splendid oratory and the courage of his presence usually kept order.
Winning a Hostile Audience
He spoke once at Baltimore, and among his audience was an Irish Federal regiment, clad half in uniform, half in civilians, as forgotten ex-privates usually are. Major Lacy was told that most of the audience was hostile and threatening.
He walked on the platform and spoke a few words about the unknown men he came to get funds to decently bury, of the women away where the starlight was twinkling over cabin and home, of those who waited, listening for a step; of those who were never again to see the men they loved.
Shuffling feet and laughter dulled the simple pathos of his words. Then turning half away from his audience he recited a poem called “The Irish Immigrant’s Lament”:
“I am sitting on the stile, Mary,
Where we sat, side by side,
On that bright May morning long ago,
When first you were my bride.”
He began it thus, and into his voice, filled with the sorrows of the “Mary’s” who wept down in his Southland, he put the full strength of his expression. The hostile audience was silent as he finished.
“And often in the far-off world,
I’ll sit and close my eyes,
And my heart will travel back again
To where my Mary lies.
And I’ll think I see the little stile
Where we sat, side by side,
Mid the young corn on that bright May morn
When you were first my bride.”
The Irishmen who had fought against the cause which Lacy loved were quiet now, and when he said, “Wouldn’t you want a bit of a stone for ‘Mary’ to remember you,” they yelled and rushed to grasp his hand. From his “hostile” audience he collected $14,000.00 that night. In the whole tour he gathered a great sum for Confederate cemeteries.