He was about entering the service as major of a new regiment then organizing in the north-western part of the State; but he threw this up and accepted my offer.
Neither Hillyer nor Lagow proved to have any particular taste or special qualifications for the duties of the soldier, and the former resigned during the Vicksburg campaign; the latter I relieved after the battle of Chattanooga.

Rawlins remained with me as long as he lived, and rose to the rank of brigadier general and chief-of-staff to the General of the Army--an office created for him--before the war closed.

He was an able man, possessed of great firmness, and could say "no" so emphatically to a request which he thought should not be granted that the person he was addressing would understand at once that there was no use of pressing the matter.

General Rawlins was a very useful officer in other ways than this.

I became very much attached to him.
Shortly after my promotion I was ordered to Ironton, Missouri, to command a district in that part of the State, and took the 21st Illinois, my old regiment, with me.