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THE LIF 
 
 PUBLIC 
 
 OP 
 
 MAJOR-GENERAL ei/fLER. 
 
 THE HERO OF NEW ORLEANS! 
 
 ^ ;,_ PRICE 25 CENTS. ~ 
 
 
 Pedlars, Sutlers, and Canvassers" 
 
 Or fianaT-ol 'D..^! < . 
 
 are wanted everywhere to 
 
 Arxraora m <v. 
 
""new books just published.'' 
 
 I 
 
 I. 
 
 I McCLEIiliAN'S LIFE AND CAMPAIGNS. — THE LIFE, CAM- 
 PAIGNS, AND PUBLIC SERVICES OP MAJOK-GENEKAL 
 GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, the HERO OF WESTERN VIRGINIA! SOUTH 
 MOUNTAIN ! and ANTIETAM, with a full history of his Campaigns and Battles, and 
 his REPORTS AND CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE WAR DEPARTMENT AND THE 
 PRESIDENT, in relation to them, from the time he first took the field in this war, until 
 he was finally relieved from command, after the Battle of Antietam. With his Por- 
 trait. Complete in one large volume of 200 pages. Price Fifty cents. Cloth 75 cents. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE LIFE AND SERVICES OP MAJOR-GENERAL GRANT; 
 
 The Hero of "Fort Donelson," " Viciisburg," and "Chattanooga," Commander of the 
 Military Division of the Mississippi, and captor of 472 cannon and 90,000 Rebel Prison- j 
 ers. With his Portrait. Price 25 cents. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE LIFE OP ARCHBISHOP HUGHES, first Archbishop of New York ; 
 with a full account of his Life, Death, and Burial ; as well as his Services in all Pursuits 
 and Vocations, from his Birth until his Death. With his Portrait. Price 25 cents. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES OF MAJOR-GENERAL 
 BENJAMIN P. BUTLER, the Hero of "New Orleans," Commander of the 
 Military Department of Virginia and North Carolina ; also Commissioner for the Ex- 
 change of Prisoners. With his Portrait. Price 25 cents. 
 
 V. 
 
 THE LIFE AND SERVICES OF MAJOR-GENERAL GEORGE 
 G. MEADE, the Hero of "Gettysburg," and now Commander of the Army of the 
 Potomac. With his Portrait. Price 25 cents. 
 
 4®=" Canvassers, Booksellers, News Agents, Sutlers, Pedlars, and all others, will please 
 send on their orders at once for what iliey may waut of any of the above Books, who will 
 be supplied with them assorted, by the dozen, hundredj or thousand, at very low rates. 
 
 IN PRESS AND NEARLY READY. 
 
 We have in Press, the Lives of the following distinguished Generals, price 25 cents 
 each, and will publish one every two weeks, in uniform style with the " Life of Grant," 
 "Life of Archbishop Hughes," "Life of Butler,'' " McClellan's Life and Campaigns," etc. 
 
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 SEDGWICK. BIRNEY. SEC- CHASE. 
 
 Published and for sale at the Cheapest Book House in the world to Ituj or send for a 
 stock of any kinds of books you may wish, which is at 
 
 T. B. PETERSON & BROTHERS, 
 
 No. 306 Chestnut Street, -Philadelphia, Pa., 
 
 To whom all orders and remittances must come addressed to meet with prompt attention. 
 
 J6S^ We have also in Press a large and complete edition of the " LIFE AND SERVICES 
 OF GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT, with all his Orders, Speeches, etc.," to be comprised 
 in a large 12mo. volume of over 500 pages, cloth, price One Dollar. 
 
LIFE AND ITBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OF 
 
 MAJOR-GEMRAL BUTLER. 
 
 (BENJAMIN F. BUTLER.) 
 
 THE 
 
 HERO OF NEW OELBANS. 
 
 FOR IHL EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS. 
 
 H ^^ 
 
 aauer s bpeeeh m WasJiington, May, 1861, 
 
 J PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 T. B. PETEESON & BEOTHEES 
 30C CHESTNUT STREET 
 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by 
 
 T. B. PETERSON & BrvOTHERS, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, in and for the 
 
 Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 ^-^ 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Life and Public Services of Major-General Benjamin F. Butler 19 
 
 His Birth-place and Ancestors 19 
 
 His Youth and Education 20 
 
 ire leaves College and becomes a Lawyer 22 
 
 Ills Political History 23 
 
 General Butler in the Charleston Convention...... 25 
 
 His return homo 26 
 
 lie endeavors to convince the Traitors 27 
 
 Is appointed Brigadier-General and takes the Field — Arrival in 
 
 Philadelphia 28 
 
 He leaves Philadelphia for Annapolis 29 
 
 His arrival at Annapolis — Characteristic epistles 30 
 
 He rescues the "Constitution" and prepares to land , 31 
 
 He occupies Annapolis and the Railroad — Correspondence with the 
 
 Governor of Maryland 32 
 
 The Department of Annapolis 35 
 
 Correspondence with Governor Andrew 37 
 
 How General Butler wanted to defend Washington 41 
 
 The occupation of Baltimore 43 
 
 He issues a Proclamation to the citizens of Baltimore from Federal 
 
 Hill 44 
 
 He is relieved from command of Baltimore and of the Department 
 
 of Annapolis — Proceeds to Washington, is serenaded, and 
 
 makes a Speech 46 
 
 He is appointed Major-General, and ordered to Fortress Monroe 48 
 
 The Abolition of Slavery inaugurated — Stampede of Contrabands — 
 
 Correspondence with General Scott and the Secretary of War... 49 
 
 The disaster at Great Bethel — General Butler's Official Report of it.. 53 
 His Anti-liquor regulations — Correspondence with the Secretary of 
 
 War 57 
 
 The Hatteras Expedition.., 63 
 
 {11) 
 
18 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Department of New England — His Gulf Expedition — Orders 
 from General McClellan, Major-General Commanding, in re- 
 lation to it 65 
 
 The Capture of the Forts below New Orleans — General Butler's OflB- 
 
 cial Report to the Secretary of War in relation to it 67 
 
 The Occupation of New Orleans — Mumford's Treason 71 
 
 General Butler's Proclamation to the People of New Orleans 72 
 
 His interview with the Mayor of the city 7fi 
 
 An act of Heroism 77 
 
 The Responsibilities and Duties of his Position 78 
 
 His trouble with the Foreign Consuls — Correspondence with them,. 80 
 The celebrated Woman Order — The Governor's Address to the 
 People — Correspondence between General Butler and the 
 Mayor of New Orleans — The Mayor is s«nt to Fort Jackson. . 83 
 The Hanging of Mumford for tearing down the Flag of the United 
 
 States from the roof of the Mint SS 
 
 Other achievements of General Butler — Rebel Atrocities — Mrs. 
 Philips, Fidel Keller, and John W. Andrews, sent to Ship 
 
 Island 89 
 
 General Butler removed from command at New Orleans, and is suc- 
 ceeded by General Banks — General Butler's Order to the Sol- 
 diers of the Army of the Gulf. 91 
 
 His Farewell Address to the People of New Orleans 93 
 
 The celebrated Proclamation of Jefferson Davis, President of the 
 Confederate States, pronouncing General Butler " to be a felon, 
 
 deserving of capital punishment" 96 
 
 Ten Thousand Dollars is offered for the capture of Benjamin F. But- 
 ler, dead or alive — Honors bestowed on General Butler on 
 
 his return to the North 100 
 
 General Butler returns to active service, and assumes command of 
 the Department of Virginia and North Carolina — Issues Order 
 
 No. 29, appoints his Staff, and goes at once to work 101 
 
 He seizes the Gas Works of Norfolk — General Butler's answer to the 
 
 argument of the Directors' complaining of the seizure 103 
 
 The Perfectionists and General Butler 105 
 
 A Liar Punished — The Rebels Chocked — Another Rebel Woman 
 
 punished 106 
 
 General Butler at Point Lookout — Southern feeling towards General 
 
 Butler, etc 107 
 
LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
 
 OP 
 
 MAJOK-GENERAL BENJ. F. BUTLER 
 
 No MAN has figured more prominently during the pro- 
 gress of the rebellion than Major-General Benjamin 
 Franklin Butler. He may not have distinguished him- 
 self upon the field of battle to the same extent as some of 
 his compatriots ; but wherever his sword has been un- 
 sheathed in actual service, it has never been returned to 
 its scabbard save with the brightness of the steel made 
 more brilliant by the victory which has crowned the efforts 
 of the man of iron nerve and inflexible determination, who 
 wielded it. Content with devising the plans by which 
 others attain a proud eminence in the history of our country, 
 he experiences an unselfish feeling of pride whenever his 
 subordinates are enabled to rise from obscurity to that 
 fame which always attends the true hero. 
 
 HIS BIRTHPLACE AND ANCESTORS. 
 
 General Butler was born on the fifth day of November, 
 1818, in South Deerfield, New Hampshire, an interior 
 agricultural town or township, than which few others in 
 that section of the State can boast of more romantic 
 scenety. Beneath the ahadow of the Patuccawa Moun- 
 
 19 
 
20 LIFE OF MAJOR GENERAL BtTLER. 
 
 tains he entered upon his existence, and from early boy- 
 hood, although more delicate than the children of the 
 hardy yeomanry of Rockingham generally were, he mani- 
 fested those powerful traits and characteristics which in 
 after-life made him so distinguished. His grandfather was 
 Captain Zephaniah Butler, of Connecticut, who served at 
 Quebec under General Wolfe, and also in the Revolution- 
 ary war ; and his father, John Butler, was a Captain of 
 Light Dragoons from March, 1812, to March, 1814, and 
 also served faithfully under General Jackson at New 
 Orleans. After peace had been declared, the soldier 
 became a sailor and engaged in the West India trade, 
 sometimes as a supercargo, and again as the commander 
 of a vessel, small but sufficiently capacious to contain a 
 cargo, the sale of which rarely failed to add to the worldly 
 possessions of its captain. In the spring of 1819, while 
 his vessel was anchored in the harbor of one of the West 
 India Islands, he fell a victim to the yellow-fever, and his 
 widow found herself compelled with slender means to 
 support her two sons. Mrs. Butler, however, was blessed 
 with that energy and activity which the majority of New 
 England mothers possess, and inherited from her ances- 
 tors, the Cilleys of the Granite State — a family whose 
 representatives have graced every profession, and who, by 
 their talents as displayed in the State and National halls 
 of legislation, have gained an enviable position among the 
 statesmen and patriots of the country — the traits which 
 were to enable her in her loneliness to raise and educate 
 her orphan children. 
 
 HIS YOUTH AND EDUCATIOTiT. 
 
 As a boy Benjamin F. Butler was an anxious student, 
 and although enabled to gratify his desire for instruction 
 oulv to a limited extent at the little school-house near the 
 family homestead, the rudiments were eagerly studied, not 
 
LIFE OF MAJOE-GENERAL BUTLER. 21 
 
 once but over and over again, while every thing readable, 
 books, pamphlets, almanacs and newspapers, was read 
 with avidity, and their contents committed to memory. 
 
 When Benjamin was ten years of age, Mrs. Butler 
 removed with her two sons to Lowell, Massachusetts, then 
 a small but flourishing town, where he had increased 
 opportunities to pursue his studies, and by close applica- 
 tion, devoting the hours set apart by his schoolmates for 
 amusement, to his books and pencil, he passed from class 
 to class in the common school, and from thence to the 
 High School and the Academy at Exeter near his birth- 
 place. At the age of sixteen he entered Waterville Col- 
 lege in Maine, an institution founded under the auspices 
 of the Baptists with a view of educating within its walls 
 young men who might contemplate studying for the minis- 
 try, a profession which Mrs. Butler had long before selected 
 for her son. Upon entering the College, he was small of 
 stature and of delicate health, and as his resources were 
 necessarily extremely limited, he subsequently worked a 
 few hours in each day in making chairs, the insignificant 
 profits from his labor being devoted to the cancelling of a 
 portion of his expenses. During his stay at Waterville, 
 he was an attentive student, but not always obedient to 
 the strict rules and regulations by which the discipline was 
 enforced ; and numerous anecdotes are related of the mis- 
 understandings and differences of opinion which occasion- 
 ally existed between professors and pupils. One is thus 
 reported : One of the professors preached in the College- 
 chapel a sermon in which he maintained that the elect 
 only will be saved ; that probably not more than one in a 
 hundred of the persons usually denominated Christians 
 will be so rescued ; jind that the heathen have a better 
 chance of being saved than their civilized brethren who 
 neglect to avail themselves of the opportunities offered to 
 secure their salvation. Young Butleu*, anxious to be 
 
22 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 relieved from the necessity of attending Divine worship, 
 immediately after he left tlie church drew up a petition 
 asking to be excused from prayers and sermons thereafter, 
 on the ground that if the doctrines of the professor were 
 correct, he was only injuring his prospects of reaching a 
 better world by attending service, as the chapel usually 
 contained about six hundred persons, nine of whom were 
 his professors and tutors, and as only one in a hundred 
 could be saved, three of the faculty must be damned, and 
 how could he expect to be saved before his superiors. He 
 saw nothing but perdition in the future, and to relieve him 
 from the annoyance and anguish of having his sad fate 
 daily pointed out to him when there was no hope of sal- 
 vation, he respectfully requested that his seat in the sacred 
 edifice might be vacant. The authorities to whom it was 
 addressed failed to see anything amusing in the document, 
 and publicly reprimanded its author for irreverence. 
 
 HE LEAVES COLLEGE AJ^D BECOMES A 
 LAWYER. 
 
 In 1838 he graduated, not very high in his class, and 
 soon after, with a view of recruiting his impaired health, 
 he accompanied an uncle, the captain of a fishing-craft, to 
 the coast of Labrador ; and after an absence of four 
 months, during which he performed all the nautical duties 
 which his uncle imposed upon him, returned to Lowell 
 well and robust, and immediately entered upon the study 
 of law, which he zealously prosecuted until he was ad- 
 mitted to the bar in 1840. While preparing himself for 
 the profession of which he was in after-years destined to 
 be a prominent member, ho was frequently the attorney in 
 petty criminal and civil cases, and during a portion of the 
 time taught public-school. For a period of ten years 
 after being admitted to the bar, Mr. Butler practised in 
 Lowell ; and at the end of that time also opened 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, 23 
 
 an office in Boston, in the former of which he regularly 
 thereafter was to be found throughout the year, in the 
 early hours of the day and during the evening, while the 
 remainder of the day was spent in his Boston office. 
 Perseverance and attention, combined with unusual ability 
 and a retentive memory, secured him a lucrative practice, 
 and in 1861 he i^ reported to have had the most profita- 
 ble legal patronage of any member of the bar in New 
 England. A fellow-practitioner expressed the belief 
 that he tried at least four times more cases than any other 
 lawyer in the State, during the ten years preceding the 
 war. The same authority thus particularly refers to his 
 claims to superiority : '' Fertile in resources and strata- 
 gem; earnest and zealous to an extraordinary degree ; 
 certain of the integrity of his client's cause, and not 
 inclined to criticise or inquire whether it was strictly 
 ' constitutional' or not, but defending the whole line with 
 a boldness and energy that generally carried court and 
 jury alike. His ingenuity is exhaustless. He is faith- 
 ful and tenacious to the last degree. There is no possi- 
 bility of treachery in his conduct. * He would not betray 
 the devil to his fellow.' He is quite too ready, I have 
 sometimes thought, to forgive (he never forgets) injuries, 
 but his memory never fails as to his friends. ]S'o man 
 in America can remember facts, important and unimpor- 
 tant, like General Butler. Whatever enters his mind 
 remains there forever. Practice for a long series of years 
 had so disciplined his mind in this respect, that I think it 
 quite impossible for him to forget." 
 
 HIS POLITICAL HISTORY. 
 
 Mr. Butler early became interested in the political 
 questions of the day, and was an earnest advocate of the 
 principles and doctrines of the Democratic party. 
 
 Before he had attilined the years of manhood, he 
 
24 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENEEAL BUTLER. 
 
 attempted by his eloquence to successfully combat the re- 
 marks of distinguished men of the opposition, generally 
 largely in the majority. In 1853 he was elected a mem- 
 ber of the Massachusetts Assembly, and in 1859-60 was 
 in the Senate of the same State. While in the Legisla- 
 ture he was one of the leaders of the opposition to the 
 old banking system, and with his usual daring offered a 
 bill to compensate for loss incurred by the burning by a 
 mob of the Ursuline convent at Charlestown. In 1853 
 he represented Lowell in the Convention to revise the 
 Constitution of Massachusetts, and in April, 1860, was a 
 delegate to the Democratic Convention held in Charleston, 
 to nominate candidates for the Presidency and Vice 
 Presidency. Although not really a "pro-slavery Demo- 
 crat," as many assert, he believed that the people of the 
 Union should adhere strictly to the letter and spirit of the 
 Constitution and the laws, even should such adherence 
 indorse the establishment of the " peculiar institution" 
 in the territories. In a speech delivered in February, 
 1860, he condemned alike, in language which left no 
 doubt of his meaning upon the minds of his audience, the 
 indiscreet acts and words of Northern abolitionists and 
 Southern fire-eaters, who, indulging in criminations and 
 recriminations through a series of years, had at last 
 induced the residents of their respective sections to en- 
 gage in an unhappy controversy. He then continued : 
 ''Let us proclaim to all men that the Union, first and 
 foremost of all the good gifts of God, must and shall be 
 preserved. That it is a duty we recognize and will fulfil, 
 to grant to every part of the country its rights as 
 guaranteed by the Constitution, and due by the compact. 
 That we will, and every part of the country shall, respect 
 those institutions of every other part of the country, 
 with which they and we have nothing to do, save to let 
 them alone, whether they are palatable to us or not. 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 25 
 
 We have the right to form our own domestic institu- 
 tions as we please, to our own liking, and not to any 
 other community's liking, and will exercise that right, and 
 under the Constitution, must be protected in that right. 
 Every other State has the same right to please herself in 
 her own institutions, and is not obliged to please us in her 
 selection of them ; and as in duty, and of right bound to 
 do, we will protect her in that right, whether we like them 
 or not. It is well to pledge ourselves to each other, that 
 whenever occasion demands, we will march as one man 
 to protect our beloved country from all dismemberment, 
 and to hang the traitor who shall by overt act attempt it." 
 
 GENERAL BUTLER IN THE CHARLESTON 
 
 CONVENTION. 
 
 With these views he attended the Charleston Conven- 
 tion, and soon after the organization was selected to 
 represent Massachusetts in the committee appointed to 
 construct the Platform. When the hour arrived for the 
 committee to report the result of their conference, three 
 reports were submitted ; one from the majority, demanding 
 a slave code for the territories and protection to the slave 
 trade : one from the minority, leaving all questions 
 relating to slavery in the territories to the decision of the 
 Supreme Court ; and a third from Mr. Butler, declaring 
 the affirmance of the Democratic party to the resolutions 
 adopted and declared as a platform of principles at Cin- 
 cinnati, in 1860, without addition or alteration ; and ex- 
 pressing the belief that it was the duty of the LTnited 
 States to extend its protection alike over all its citizens, 
 whether native or naturalized. After the other rei[3orts 
 had been explained and argued, Mr. Butler obtained 
 the floor, and made a lengthy speech in advocacy of the 
 report he had presented, concluding by advising the body 
 to adopt it and then nominate some "lirm, trustworthy, 
 
26 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 out-and-out, hard- working Democrat for President, and 
 go home and elect him." This argument was conclusive, 
 and the report with a few unimportant alterations was 
 adopted by a vote of 230 to 40. Although knowing that the 
 South was bitterly opposed to the nomination of Judge 
 Douglas, with no possibility of him receiving the support 
 of the great mass of the Democratic party of the 
 Northern States, the Lowell representative, in accord- 
 ance with the preferences of his constituents, voted seven 
 times for Mr. Douglas, and then as he states '' looked 
 around to throw my vote where, at least, it would not 
 mislead anybody," and strange to say the man who now 
 sits in the Executive chair at Richmond, Jefferson Davis, 
 and who has maliorned and abused General Butler durino; 
 the rebellion without stint, was the one whom he selected 
 as the "statesman of national fame and reputation," best 
 entitled to receive his support. Adjourning to Baltimore, 
 the same hostility to the nomination of Judge Douglas 
 was evinced by his opponents in the Convention, and 
 after all hopes of compromise were dispelled, the subjeet 
 of our sketch went out with the opponents, and nominated 
 Mr. Breckenridge, who declared his devotion to the Union 
 and the Constitution and his opposition to secession 
 under any circumstances. 
 
 HIS RETURN HOME. 
 
 Mr. Butler's reception upon his return to Lowell was 
 such as he might have expected to receive after having 
 adopted a course so repugnant to the views of his con- 
 stituents, and for some time they refused to allow him the 
 pri\^lege of explaining the reasons which prompted him 
 to cast his vote for the obnoxious aspirant for the Presi- 
 dential nomination. Subsequently he was selected by the 
 Breckenridge Aving of the party as their candidate for the 
 Gubernatorial position of Massachusetts — a position to 
 
LIFE OF MA.TOK-GEXERAL BUTLER. 27 
 
 which some years before he had aspired, hut unsuccess- 
 fully. His defeat on this occasion was even more marked^ 
 as he only received an insignihcant support, not amount- 
 ing in all to more than six thousand votes. 
 
 HE ENDEAVORS TO CO]SrVIK"CE THE 
 THAITOKS. 
 
 In December, 1860, General Butler visited Washington, 
 and, calling upon one Southern friend after another, en- 
 deavored to convince them how erroneous was their course ; 
 how futile must be their efforts to break up the Union. 
 The Commissioners appointed by South Carolina to pre- 
 sent to the President the ordinance of secession and to 
 provide for the separation of that State from the Union, 
 were then at the Capital, and he used his utmost endeavors 
 to convince them that if they continued in their course it 
 could result in nothing but their own destruction, and that 
 the North would fight until the last drop of blood and the 
 last cent of money had been expended. In answer to a 
 question from one of the traitors, whether he (General 
 Butler) would fight in such a cause, he promptly and nobly 
 replied: ''Yes! and by the grace of God I will;" and 
 subsequently in a conversation with the United States 
 Attorney-General he advised that the President should 
 admit the Commissioners when they called upon their 
 treasonable mission, and that they should then be placed 
 in the custody of the Marshal as prisoners of State, charged 
 with treason to their country. " Let them then be tried 
 before the Supreme Court, and if they are convicted let 
 them be executed. Time will be gained, and both sides 
 will pause to watch the progress of the dignified proceed- 
 ing, and passion and prejudice will be allayed. I will re- 
 main here and help the District Attorney without fee or 
 reward." Such in brief was the excellent advice offered 
 by the man upon whom probably more than any other 
 prominent influential citizen of the North the Disunionists 
 
28 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 relied for support and assistance. The plan, however, 
 was not palatable to Mr. Buchanan, who was afraid of 
 agitating the Southern people, and was of course rejected. 
 Again he conversed with the Commissioners upon their 
 folly, and again he indignantly spurned their tempting 
 offers to unite with them. 
 
 Returning to Massachusetts, he confided to Governor 
 Andrew the information he had received at Washington, 
 and at his suggestion immediate preparations were made 
 to place the militia in a condition to respond promptly to 
 any call that might be made for their services. The pa- 
 triot then returned to his legal practice, and when the first 
 call for troops from Massachusetts was made, he was 
 pleading a case in court. 
 
 IS APPOINTED BRIGADIEIl-GENERAL AND 
 TAKES THE FIELD. 
 
 General Butler had in early manhood entered the State 
 service as a private in the City Guard, a company which 
 afterwards formed a portion of the Sixth Massachusetts 
 regiment, and had gradually been promoted from grade to 
 grade until in April, 1861, we find him a Brigadier-General. 
 Thanks to the preparations suggested by him and the fore- 
 sight of Governor Andrew, in less than twenty-four hours 
 his brigade, although hundreds of the men composing it 
 were scattered through a large extent of country, was 
 drawn up in line in Boston awaiting the order to march. 
 That same afternoon the Sixth left for Washington. Their 
 bloody march through Baltimore is a matter of history 
 which our limited space will not allow us to repeat. Gen- 
 eral Butler then by his influence procured a loan for the 
 State from a bank in Boston, of fifty thousand dollars, and 
 telegraphed to Senator Wilson that as a brigade had been 
 ordered, a brigadier would l>e required. An officer of 
 that rank w^as immediately called for, and on the seven- 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 29 
 
 teenth Benjamin F. Butler was selected for the position 
 by the Governor. The next day, after having seen his 
 other regiments despatched, he left Boston with the Eighth 
 for Washington. Upon arriving in Philadelphia he was 
 startled and horrified by the sad tidings that some of his 
 gallant men had been murdered by a mob in the streets 
 of Baltimore, and that the travel to that city had been in- 
 terrupted by the destruction of the railroad and bridges. 
 To proceed under the circumstances, with no facilities for 
 transportation, was impossible, and marching his men to 
 a vacant hotel-building, he gave them comfortable quar- 
 ters, while he consulted by telegraph with Governor An- 
 drew and conversed with prominent officials in Philadel- 
 phia. Before he retired that night he had determined 
 upon the course to pursue. The exaggerated reports 
 naturally incident to the great excitement which prevailed 
 had it, that the ferry-boat which plied across the Susque- 
 hanna had been seized by the Secessionists, and he deter- 
 mined to march his regiment to the river, regain possession 
 of the steamer, and use it for the transportation of his 
 troops to i nnapolis, a route which obviated the necessity 
 of passing through Baltimore, and a point which, once 
 reached, would place his command in a position to afford 
 assistance if Washington was attacked. 
 
 HE LEAVES PHILADELPHIA FOR ANNAPOLIS. 
 
 On the norning of the twentieth of April General But- 
 ler and thf Eighth regiment left Philadelphia in the cars 
 for Perryv lie, on the north bank of the Susqueha,nna and 
 opposite t Havre de Grace ; and amving within a mile 
 or two of ,he river, the train was halted, the men eager 
 and ready for the fray alighted, and two of the companies 
 having be m sent in advance as skirmishers, the regiment, 
 over sev0 t hundred strong, took up its line of march ; but 
 upon re hing the little village, the falsity of the reports 
 
30 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLEH. 
 
 were made manifest by the quiet which prevailed therein, 
 and by the peaceful aspect of the "Maryland" as she lay 
 alongside of the railroad pier. Taking possession and 
 stowing his men on board, he the same evening got under 
 way and at midnight was in the harbor of Annapolis. 
 
 HIS ARBIVAL AT ANNAPOLIS. 
 
 He found the residents in an excited state and firm in 
 their determination to prevent the passage of Northern 
 troops over the soil of Maryland ; the railroad to the Junc- 
 tion had been destroyed; the " Constitution," which had 
 been used as a practice-ship for the midshipmen of the 
 Naval Academy, was in danger ; and the naval officers in 
 command, although brave and prepared to make a defence, 
 na,tu rally believed that efforts to protect the Government 
 property would be unsuccessful. Governor Hicks ad- 
 dressed a communication to General Butler earnestly ad- 
 vising him not to land his troops, as prudence dictated 
 their debarkation at some other point where the excite- 
 ment was not so intense, and the Quartermaster of the 
 post notified him that as it was impracticable to procure 
 cars, he had better remain on board until he received fur- 
 ther orders from General Scott. In response to the Gov- 
 ernor, General Butler addressed the following note : 
 
 CHARACTEmSTIC EPISTLES. 
 
 " I had the honor to receive your note by the hands of Lieu- 
 tenant Matthews, of the United States Naval School, at Annap- 
 olis. I am sorry that your Excellency should advise against 
 my landing here. I am not provisioned for a long voyage. 
 Finding the ordinary means of communication cut off by the 
 burning of railroad bridges by a mob, I have been obliged to 
 make this detour, and hope that your Excellency will see, from 
 the very necessity of the case, that there is no cause of excite- 
 ment in the mind of any good citizen because of our being 
 driven here by an extraordinary casualty. I should at once 
 obey, however, an order from the Secretary of War." 
 
 To the Quartermaster he wrote as follows : 
 
 " I am grieved to hear that it is impracticable for you to pro- 
 cure cars for the carriage of myself and command to Washing- 
 
LIFK OF MAJOE-GENEKAL BUTLER. 31 
 
 ton, D. C. Cars are not indispensable to our progress. I am 
 not instructod that you were to arrange for the transporting of 
 my command ; if so, you would surely have been instructed as 
 to our destination. We are accustomed to much longer jour- 
 neys on foot in pursuance of our ordinary avocations. I can 
 see no objection, however, to our remaining wheie we are until 
 such time as orders may be received from (leneral Scott. But 
 without further explanation from yourself, or greater inconveni- 
 ences than you suggest, I see no reason why I should make such 
 delay. Hoping for the opportunity of an immediate personal 
 interview, 1 remain, etc." 
 
 HE RESCUES THE " COl^STITUTION" AND 
 PREPARES TO LAND. 
 
 The next morning Captain Blake, the Commandant at 
 
 the Academy, went aboard the steamer to solicit assistance 
 
 in rescuing the Constitution, which was aground and 
 
 threatened ; and in a few hours the noble frigate, with a 
 
 chosen band of Massachusetts patriots on board, was moved 
 
 from her position to a place of safety. General Butler 
 
 decided to go ashore and visit the authorities, and in an 
 
 interview with the Governor and the Mayor he was again 
 
 advised not to land, as his progress beyond the town would 
 
 be impeded, and the residents would neither give nor 
 
 sell him supplies. The General replied that he must and 
 
 should go to Washington, with or without the assistance 
 
 of the people of Annapolis, and that there was more than 
 
 one mode of obtaining provisions in case of refusal to sell. 
 
 On the morning of the twenty-second the New York 
 
 Seventh regiment arrived, and General Butler issued an 
 
 order from which we make the following extract: 
 
 "The purpose which could only be hinted at in the orders of 
 yesterday has been accomplished. The frigate Constitution has 
 lain for a long time at this port substantially at the mercy of the 
 armed mob which sometimes paralyzes the otherwise loyal State 
 of Maryland. Deeds of daring, successful contests, and glori- 
 ous victories had rendered Old Ironsides so conspicuous in the 
 naval history of the country, that she was fitly chosen as the 
 school in which to train the future officers of the navy to like 
 heroic acts. It was given to Massachusetts and Essex County 
 first to man her ; it was reserved to Massachusetts to have the 
 2 
 
32 LIFE OF MAJOR-GEXERAL BUTLER. 
 
 honor to retain her for the service of the Union and the laws. 
 This is a sufficient triumph of ri^ht — a sufficient tiinmph I'or us. 
 By this the blood of our friends shed by the Bultiniore mob is 
 in so far avenged. The Eig-hth regiment may hereafter cheer 
 lustily upon all proper occasions, but never without orders. 'J'he 
 old 'Constitution,' by their efforts, aided untiringly by the 
 United States officers having; her in charge, is now safely 'pos- 
 sessed, occupied, and enjoyed' by the government of the United 
 States, and is safe from all her enemies. 
 
 " We have been joined by the Seventh regiment of New 
 York, and together we propose peaceably, quietly, and civilly, 
 unless opposed by some mob or other disorderly persons, to 
 march to Washington in obedience to the requisition of the 
 President of the United States ; and if opposed, we shall march 
 steadily forward. My next order, I hardly know how to ex- 
 press. I cannot assume that any of the citizen soldiery of 
 Massachusetts or New York could, under any circumstances 
 whatever, commit any outrages upon private property in a loyal 
 and friendly State ; but fearing that some improper person may 
 have by stealth introduced himself among us, I deem it proper 
 to state that any unauthorized interference with private prop- 
 erty will be most signally punished, and full reparation therefor 
 be made to the injured party, to the full extent of my power 
 and ability. In so doing I but carry out the orders of the War 
 Department. I should have done so without those orders." 
 
 He then sent a formal request to Governor Hicks for 
 permission to land, but no answer being received and his 
 men suffering from the privations unexpectedly encoun- 
 tered, he sent word to his Excellency that he intended to 
 debark immediately — an intention which the Governor at- 
 tempted to thwart by written protest, and urging that, if 
 the landing was persisted in, no halt should be made in the 
 town. 
 
 HE OCCUPIES ANNAPOLIS AND THE RAIL- 
 ROAD. 
 
 That afternoon both regiments landed at the grounds 
 of the Naval Academy, and with two companies of the 
 Eighth he marched to the other end of the town and seized 
 the railroad depot and storehouse. An old, damaged and 
 dirty locomotive was found in one of the buildings, and, 
 strange to say, among the captors was a private, Charles 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 83 
 
 Homans, who had been an employee in the shop in which 
 the engine had been built. His knowledge was of vast 
 service at that important moment, and without delay it 
 was brought into requisition and the engine placed under 
 repair. The next day two companies were sent out on a 
 reconnoissance along the railroad without meeting with 
 the rumored enemj^ ; the residents received without hesi- 
 tation the money of the soldiers for their wares ; and Gen- 
 eral Butler wrote some of his characteristic letters to State 
 and railroad officials, among them the followimr : 
 "Head-quarters, U. S. Militia, 
 
 "Annapolis, Md., April 23d, 1861. 
 To his Excellency Thomas H. Hicks, Governor of Maryland. 
 
 " I did myself the honor, in my communication of yesterday, 
 wherein I asked permission to land on the soil of Maryland, to 
 inform you that the portion of the militia under my command 
 were armed only aaainst the disturbers of the peace of the State 
 of Maryland and of the United States. 
 
 " I have understood within the last hour that some apprehen- 
 sion is entertained of an insurrection of the negro population 
 of this neighborhood. I am anxious to convince all classes of 
 persons that the forces under my command are not here in any 
 way to interfere, or countenance an interference, with the laws of 
 the State. I, therefore, am ready to co-operate with your excel- 
 lency in suppressing most promptly and efficiently any insurrec- 
 tion against the laws of the State of Maryland. I beg, there- 
 fore, that you announce publicly, that any portion of the forces 
 under my command is at your excellency's disposal, to act im- 
 mediately for the preservation of the peace of this community. 
 I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 "B. F. JBuTLER, Brig. GenH." 
 
 Although the apprehensions of the citizens at the re- 
 ported slave insurrection were naturally much allayed by 
 this letter, which from its tenor soon obtained publicity, 
 the Governor deemed it advisable to issue another of his 
 protests. It was as follows : 
 
 "Executive Chamber, Annapolis, 
 ''Friday, April 23d, 1861. 
 " To Brigadier-General B. F. Butler: 
 
 " Sir : Having, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the con 
 stitution of Maryland, summoned the Legislature of the State 
 
34 LIFE OF MAJOK-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 to assemble on Friday, the 26th instant, and Annapolis bein^ 
 tlie place in which, according to law, it mast assemble ; and 
 having been credibly informed that you have taken military pos- 
 session of the Annapolis and Elk liidge railroad, I deem it my 
 duty to protest against this step ; because, without at present 
 assigning any other reason, I am informed that such occupation 
 of said road will prevent the members of the Legislature from 
 reaching this city. Very respectfully yours, T, H. Hicks." 
 
 To this, General Butler replied : 
 
 "You are correctly informed that I have taken possession of 
 the Annapolis and Elk Ridge railroad. It might have escaped 
 your notice, but at the official meeting which was had, between 
 your excellency and the mayor of Annapolis and the committee 
 of the government and myself, as to the landing of my troops, 
 it was expressly stated, as the reason why I should not land, 
 that my troops could not pass the railroad, because the company 
 had taken up the rails, and they were private property. It is 
 difficult to see how it can be, that if my troops could not pass 
 over the railroad one way, the members of the Legislature could 
 pass the other way. I have taken possession for the purpose of 
 preventing the execution of the threats of the mob, as officially 
 represented to me by the master of transportation of the rail- 
 road in this city, ' that if my troops passed over the railroad, 
 the railroad should be destroyed.' 
 
 " If the government of the State had taken possession of the 
 road in any emergency, I should have long hesitated before en- 
 tering upon it ; but as I had the honor to inform your excel- 
 lency in regard to another insurrection against the laws of Mary- 
 land, I am here armed to maintain those laws, if your excellency 
 desires, and the peace of the United States against all disor- 
 derly persons whatsoever. I am endeavoring to save and not to 
 destroy; to obtain means of transportation, so that I can vacate 
 the capital prior to the sitting of the Legislature, and not be 
 under the painful necessity of incumbering your beautiful city 
 while the Legislature is in session. I have the honor to be, 
 very respectfully, your excellency's obedient servant, 
 
 " B. F. Butler, Brig. Genr 
 
 The repairs to the locomotive having been effected, the 
 General issued an order to the following effect : 
 
 "The detachment of the Eighth, under command of Lieuten- 
 ant-Colonel Hinks, which has already pushed forward and occu- 
 pied the railroad three and one-half miles, will remain at its 
 advance until joined by two companies of the New York 
 Seventh, which will take the train now in our possession, and 
 push forward as far as the track is left uninjured by the mob. 
 •These companies will then leave the cars, and, throwing out 
 proper skiiinishers, carefully scour the country along the line 
 
LIFE OF MAJOli-GENERAL BUTLER. 35 
 
 of the road, while the working party of the Eighth is repairing 
 the track; taking care, however, not to advance so fast as not 
 to be in reach of the main body, in case of an attack. Tlie train 
 of cars will return, and take up the advanced detachment of the 
 Eighth, now holding possession of the depot. These will again 
 go forward as far as can be done with safety, on account of the 
 state of the track, when they will leave the train, assist the party 
 repairing it, and push forward as rapidly as possible, taking care 
 that the track is put in order for the passage of the train. In 
 the meantime, the train will return to the depot, and taking on 
 board such a portion of the baggage as may be proper, will again 
 go forward. The remaining portions of the Massachusetts 
 and New York regiments will put themselves on the march, and 
 consolidate the two regiments as rapidly as possible." 
 
 Directions were also given as to the course to be pur- 
 sued if attacked, and in reference to the regard which 
 should be paid to private property. With the departure 
 from Annapolis commenced the labor and exposure, but 
 the enterprise of the Yankee soldiery was not to be per- 
 manentl}^ checked by the important work intrusted to their 
 hands by their commander. A mile of repairs in an hour 
 was all that the two regiments could accomplish. Rails 
 had been torn from their fastenings and thrown into divers 
 places of concealment ; ties wrested from their position 
 and burned ; and the torch had been effectively applied to 
 the bridges. One difficulty after another was surmounted, 
 and on the afternoon of the following day (April 25th) the 
 Seventh New York marched into Washington without 
 having met with armed opposition. 
 
 THE DEPARTMENT OF ANNAPOLIS. 
 General Butler remained at Annapolis superintending 
 the landing and subsequent movement of the thousands 
 of troops who began to arrive from all parts of the loyal 
 North, and on the 27th instant the War Department issued 
 an order creating a new Military Department to be called 
 the Department of Annapolis, and to include the country 
 for twenty miles on each side of the railroad from An- 
 napolis to the city of Washington, as far as Bladensburg, 
 
36 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 Maryland, and assigning General Butler to the command. 
 Few ^Yho had occasion to visit the ancient town during 
 the latter days of April, 18G1, will forget the interview 
 which they were compelled to have with the General Com- 
 manding before they could walk at will be3^ond the walls 
 of the Naval Academy grounds. Seated in a large room 
 in the main school-building, surrounded by his staff and 
 numerous clerks, day and night, early and late, could this 
 representative of New England loyalty be found, ever firm 
 in his determination to carry out the regulations he deemed 
 best adapted to the exigency, yet always courteous to the 
 hundreds of visitors who thronged his office. Troops 
 were despatched; actual or suspected rebel emissaries 
 were arrested and examined ; extensive purchases of sup- 
 plies were made; and citizens were received and their 
 questions or complaints promptly answered. 
 
 There was no confusion, no dissatisfaction, and General 
 Butler abundantly proved that he w\as just the man for the 
 position. While attending to those around him, he also 
 kept his eye upon an important body which had convened 
 at Frederick — the Maryland Legislature — and gave its 
 members to understand that if they passed an ordinance 
 of secession, he would arrest the entire Senate and House 
 of Representatives. The annoyances to which he was 
 subjected were sufficient to cause a less energetic officer to 
 fail, but there is only one instance on record of his having 
 lost his temper. A correspondent of a newspaper, who, 
 finding the hotels full and the floors of the numerous 
 buildings of the Academy covered with weary soldiers, 
 came at midnight to the General's room and besought him 
 to designate the place where he could sleep that night. 
 The answer he received, and which doubtless he to this 
 day remembers, was as follows : " Sir, I have done to-day 
 about every thing that a man ever did in this world, but 
 I am not going to turn chambermaid." 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GKXEKAL BUTLER. 87 
 
 COKRESPONDENCE WITH GOVERNOR AN- 
 DREW. 
 
 His offer made on the 23d of April to Governor Hicks 
 to co-operate in suppressing negro insurrection, subse- 
 quently caused the following communications to pass be- 
 tween Governor Andrew and himself: 
 
 Governor Andrew to General Butlkr. 
 
 " Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
 " Executive Department, 
 "Council Chamber, Boston, April 25, 1861. 
 " General : I have received, throiio^h Mayor Ames, a despatch 
 transmitted from Perryville, detailing the proceedings at An- 
 napolis from the time of your arrival off' that port until the hour 
 when Major Ames left you to return to Philadelphia, I wish 
 to repeat the assurance of my entire satisfaction with the action 
 you have taken, with a single exceplion; If I rightly under- 
 stood the telegraphic despatch, I think that your action in tender- 
 ing to Governor Hicks the assistance of our Massachusetts 
 troops to suppress a threatened servile insurrection among the 
 hostile people of Maryland was unnecessary. I hope that the 
 fuller despatches, which are on their way from you, may show 
 reasons why I should modify my opinion concerning that par- 
 ticular instance ; but, in general, I thiidv that the matter of 
 servile insurrection among a community in arms against the 
 Federal Union, is no longer to be regarded by our troops in a 
 political, but solely in a military point of view, and is to be con- 
 templated as one of the inherent weaknesses of the enemy, from 
 the disastrous operations of which we are under no obligation 
 of a military character to guard them, in order that they may 
 be enabled to improve the security which our arms would afford, 
 so as to prosecute with more energy their traitorous attacks 
 upon the Federal government and capital. The mode in which 
 such outbreaks are to be considered, should depend entirely 
 upon the loyalty or disloyalty of the community in which they 
 occur; and in the vicinity of Annapolis, I can, on this occasion, 
 perceive no reason of military policy, why a force summoned to 
 the defence of the Federal government, at this moment of all 
 others, shotdd be offered to be diverted from its immediate duty, 
 to help rebels, who stand with arms in their hands, obstructing 
 its progress toward the city of Washington. I entertain no 
 doubt that whenever we shall have an opportunity to inter- 
 change our views personally on this subject, we shall arrive at 
 entire concordance of opinion. Yours faithfully, 
 
 "John A. Andrew." 
 
S8 LIFE OF MAJOK-GENEKAL BUTLER. 
 
 General Butler to Governor Andrew. 
 
 " Department of Annapolis, 
 "Head-quarters, Anxapolls, May 9, 18GI. 
 "To His Excellency John A. Andrew, 
 
 " Governor and Commrmder-w - Chief : 
 
 "Sir: — I have delayed replying to your excellency's despatch 
 of the 25th April, in my other despatches, because as it involved 
 only disapprobation of an act done, couched in the kindest lan- 
 guage, I supposed the interest of the country could nut suffer in 
 the delay; and incessant labor up to the present moment, has 
 prevented me giving- full consideration to the topic. Temporary 
 illness, which forbids bodily activity, gives me now a moment's 
 pause. 
 
 "The telegraph, with more than usual accuracy, had rightly 
 informed your excellency that I had offered the services of the 
 Massachusetts troops under my command to aid the authorities 
 of Maryland in suppressing a threatened slave-insurrection. 
 Fortunately for us all, the rumor of such an outbreak was with- 
 out substantial foundation. Assuming, as your excellency does, 
 in your despatch, that I was carrying on military operations in 
 an enemy's country, when a war a Voiitrance was to be waged, 
 my act might be a matter of discussion. And in that view, 
 acting in the light of the Baltimore murders, and the apparent 
 hostile position of Maryland, your excellency might, without 
 mature reflection, have come to the conclusion of disapprobation 
 expressed in your despatch. But the facts, especially as now 
 aided by their results, will entirely justify my act, and reinstate 
 me in your excellency's good opinion. 
 
 "True, I landed on the soil of Maryland against the formal 
 protest of its governor, and of the corporate authorities of An- 
 napolis, but without any armed opposition on their part, and 
 expecting opposition only from insurgents assembled in riotous 
 contempt of the laws of the State. Before, by letter, and at 
 the time of landing, by personal interview, I had informed 
 Governor Hicks that soldiers of the Union, under my command, 
 were armed only against the insurgents and disturbers of the 
 peace of Mar3dand and of the United States. I received from 
 Governor Hicks assurances of the loyalty of the State to the 
 Union — assurances which subsequent events have fully justified. 
 The mayor of Annapolis also informed me that the city authori- 
 ties would in no wise oppose me, but that I was in great danger 
 from the excited and riotous mobs of Baltimore pouring dov/n 
 upon me, and in numbers beyond the control of the police. I 
 assured both the governor and the mayor that I had no fear of 
 a Baltimore or other mob, and that, supported by the authorities 
 of the State and city, I should repress all hostile demonstra- 
 tions against the laws of Maryland and the United States, and 
 that I would protect both myself and the city of Auuapolis from 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL EUTLER. 89 
 
 any disorderly y)ersons whatsoever. On the morning- followini^ 
 my landing I was informed tiiat the city of Annapolis and en- 
 virons were in danger from an insurrection of the slave popula- 
 tion, i-n defiance of the laws of the State. What was I to do? 
 I had promised to put down a white mob, and to preserve and 
 enforce the laws against that. Ought I to allow a black one 
 any preference in a breach of the laws ? I understood that I 
 was armed against all infractions of the laM's, whether by white 
 or black, and upon that understanding I acted, certainly with 
 promptness and efficiency. And your excellency's shadow of 
 disapprobation, arising from a misunderstanding of the facts, 
 has caused all the regret I have for that action. The question 
 seemed to me to be neither military nor political, and was not 
 to be so treated. It was simply a question of good faith and 
 honesty of purpose. The benign effect of my course was instantly 
 seen. The good but timid people of Annapolis who had fled 
 from their houses at our approach, immediately returned ; busi- 
 ness resumed its accustomed channels ; quiet and order pre- 
 vailed in the city; confidence took the place of distrust, friend- 
 ship of enmity, brotherly kindness of sectional hate, and I 
 believe to-day there is no city in the Union more loyal than the 
 city of Annapolis. I think, therefore, I may safely point to the 
 results for my justification. The vote of the neighboring county 
 of Washington, a few days since, for its delegate to the legisla- 
 ture, wherein 4000 out of 5000 votes were thi'own for a delegate 
 favorable to the Union, is among the many happy fruits of firm- 
 ness of purpose, efficiency of action, and integrity of mission. 
 I believe, indeed, that it will not require a personal interchange 
 of views, as suggested in your despatch, to bring our minds iii 
 accordance ; a simple statement of the facts will suffice. 
 
 "But I am to act hereafter, it may be, in an enemy's country, 
 among a servile population, w.hen the question may arise, as 'it 
 has not yet arisen, as well in a moral and Christian, as in a 
 political and military point of view. AVhat shall 1 do? Will 
 your excellency bear with me a moment while this question is 
 discussed ? 
 
 " I appreciate fully your excellency's suggestion as to the in- 
 herent weakness of the rebels, arising from the preponderance 
 of their servile population. The question, then, is, In what 
 manner shall we take advantage of that weakness? By allow- 
 ing-, and, of course, arming, that population to rise upon the 
 defenceless women and children of the country, carrying rapine, 
 arson, and murder— all the horrors of San Domingo, a million 
 times magnified— among those whom we hope to reunite with us 
 as brethren, many of whom are already so, and all who are worth 
 preserving, will be, when this horrible madness shall have passed 
 away or be thrashed out of them ? Would your excellency ad- 
 vise the troops under my command to make war in person upon 
 the defenceless women and children of any part of the Union, 
 
40 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 accompanied with brutalities too horrible to be named ? You 
 will say, ' God forbid !' If we may not do so in person, shall we 
 arm others so to do, over whom we can have no restraint, exer- 
 cise no control, and who, when once they have tasted blood, may 
 turn the very arms we put in their hands against ourselves, as a 
 part of the oppressinc: white race? The reading of history so 
 familiar to your excellency, will tell you the bitterest cause of 
 complaint which our fathers had against Great Britain in the 
 war of the Revolution, was the arming by the British ministry 
 of the red man with the tomahawk and the scalping-knife against 
 the women and children of the colonies, so that the phrase, 
 * May we not use all the means which God and nature have put 
 in our power to subjugate the colonies V has passed into a legend 
 of infamy against the leader of that ministry who used it in par- 
 liament. Shall history teach us in vain? Could we justify our- 
 selves to ourselves, although with arms in our hands, amid the 
 savage wildness of camp and field, we may have blunted many 
 of the finer moral sensilnlities, in letting loose four millions of 
 worse than savages upon the homes and hearths of the South? 
 Can we be justified to the Christian community of Massachu- 
 setts? Would such a course be consonant with the teachings 
 of our holy religion ? I have a very decided opinion upon the 
 subject, and if any one desires, as I know your excellency does 
 not, this unhappy contest to be prosecuted in that manner, some 
 instrument other than myself must be found to carry it on, I 
 may not discuss the political bearings of this topic. When I 
 went from under the shadow of my roof-tree, I left all politics 
 behind me, to be resumed only when every part of the Union is 
 loyal to the flag, and the potency of the government through 
 the ballot-box is established. 
 
 " Passing the moral and Christian view, let us examine the 
 subject as a military question. Is not that State already sub- 
 jugated which requires the bayonets of those armed in oppo- 
 sition to its rulers, to preserve it from the horrors of a servile 
 war? As the least experienced of military men, I would have 
 no doubt of the entire subjugation of a State brought to that 
 condition. When, therefore — unless I am better advised — any 
 community in the United States, who have met me in honorable 
 warfare, or even in the prosecution of a rebellious war in an 
 lionorable manner, shall call upon me for protection against the 
 nameless horrors of a servile insurrection, they shall have it, 
 and from the moment that call is obeyed, I have no doubt we 
 shall be friends and not enemies. 
 
 "The possibility that dishonorable means of defence are to be 
 taken by the rebels against the government, I do not now con- 
 template. If, as has been done in a single instance, my men 
 are to be attacked by poison, or as in another, stricken down by 
 the assassin's knife, and thus murdered, the comniiinity using 
 such weapons may be required to be taught that it holds within 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 41 
 
 its own border a more potent means for deadly purposes and 
 indiscriminate slau.uhter than any which it can administer to us. 
 "Trusting that these views may meet your excellency's ap- 
 proval, I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient 
 servant, 
 
 *' Benj. F. Butler." 
 
 HOW HE WANTED TO DEFEjSTD WASHINGTON. 
 
 About the first of May General Butler visited Washing- 
 ton and suggested to General Seott the importance of 
 defending Washington, not b}^ building defences on the 
 south bank of the Potomac, but by sending a force to 
 Manassas on the Orange and Alexandria railroad, and 
 offered to go thither himself with two full regiments and 
 fortify the place. The offer was rejected, and the Com- 
 mittee on the Conduct of the War afterwards pronounced 
 it the great error of the campaign. Although disappointed 
 in his Manassas design, he obtained consent to occupy the 
 Relay House, nine miles from Baltimore, and at the junc- 
 tion of the Baltimore and Washington, and Baltimore and 
 Ohio railroads, and at daylight on the fifth of May he 
 left Annapolis with two regiments and a batter}^, and after 
 a two hours ride arrived at the Relay House and planted 
 Ills batteries so as to command the two lines of railv^^ay. 
 
 On the eighth, General Butler issued the following 
 order : 
 
 "Head-quarters, Relay House, May 8, 1861. 
 
 "The General in command congratulates the troops upon the 
 promptness with which they have moved and occupied their 
 present position, which he believes to be impregnable against 
 any force which may be brought against it. The position of 
 Major Cooke's battery commanding the viaduct, with his section 
 in position commanding the railroad to Harper's Ferry, sup- 
 ported by the strong detachment of Colonel Jones' reg-iment at 
 the Relay House, renders all movements by the railroad entirely 
 within our command. The same guns command with grjipe 
 and canister the ford below the iron works, while the extended 
 pickets of Colonel Lyons fully protect the rear. 
 
 •• The General has been thus ])artieular in describing his posi- 
 tion, so that each portion of the force might know how to eon 
 
42 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 duct in case of an attack wliicb it only requires vigilance to foiL 
 The General takes this opportunit.y piihlicly as he has done 
 privately to thank Lieutenants Fox and ShiUey, of the Eighth 
 regiment, for their coolness, promptitude, and zeal in arresting 
 one Spencer, who was uttering in the presence of the troops at 
 the Relay House the atrocious sentiment that — ' We [meaning 
 himself and brother rebels] acted rightly toward the Massachu- 
 setts troops three weeks ago Friday.' And saying ' that the 
 murderous mob who killed our friends there, were right in their 
 action ; and that the same men were preparing to give us a 
 warm reception on our return.' For these treasonable speeches 
 substantially admitted by him in his written examination, 
 Spencer has been arrested and sent to Annapolis, where he will 
 be properly dealt with. 
 
 " Two incidents of the gravest character marked the progress 
 of yesterday. Charles Leonard, private of Company G, Eighth 
 Regiment, of New York, was accidentally killed instantaneously 
 by the discharge of a musket, from which he was drawing the 
 charge. He was buried with all the honors, amidst the gloom 
 and sorrow of every United States soldier at this post, and the 
 tender sympathies of many of the loyal inhabitants in our 
 neighborliood. 
 
 " It is fitting that we pause here, even in the discharge of our 
 present soletnn duties, to drop a tear upon the grave of a fellow- 
 soldier, a friend and brother. A pure patriot, he gave up home 
 for his country ; a heroic, conscientious soldier, he died in the 
 act of discharging his duty ; and, although he was not stricken 
 by the hand of death amid the clangor of arms, and in the heat 
 of contest, yet his death was no less glorious because he met it 
 in the quiet performance of his military duty. As a citizen he 
 took up arms at his country's call ; as a private soldier he sought 
 only to fight in her ranks, and he met his death in support of 
 that flag which we all revere and love. The first offering of 
 New York of the life of one of her sons upon the country's 
 altar, his blood mingling on the soil of Maryland with that of 
 the Massachusetts men murdered at Baltimore, will form a new 
 bond of union between us and all loyal States ; so that, without 
 need of further incentive to our duty, we are spurred on by the 
 example of the life and death of Leonard. 
 
 "The other matter to which the General desires to call the 
 attention of the troops is this: Wishing to establish the most 
 friendly relations between you and this neighborhood, tFie Gen- 
 eral invited all venders of supplies to visit our camp and replenish 
 our somewhat scanty commissariat. But to his disgust and 
 horror he finds well-authenticated evidence that a private in the 
 Sixth regiment has been poisoned by means of strychnine ad- 
 ministered in the food brought into the camp by one of these 
 pedlers. I am happy to be informed that the man is now out of 
 danger. This act, of course, will render it necessary for me to 
 cut off all purchases from unauthorized persons. 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERA.L BUTLER. 43 
 
 "Are onr few insane enemies amon^ the loyal men of Mary- 
 laud prepared to waire war upon us in this manner? Do tliey 
 know tlie terrible lesson of warfare they are teaching- us ? Can 
 it be that they realize the fact that we can put an agent with a 
 word into every household armed with this terrible weapon ? 
 In view of the terrible consecjuences of this mode of warfare, 
 if adopted by us from their teaching, with every sentiment ot 
 devotional prayer, may we not exclaim, ' Father, forgive them, 
 they know not what they do !' 
 
 " Certain it is that any other such attempt, reasonably authen- 
 ticated as to the person committing it, will be followed by the 
 swiftest, surest, and most condign punishment. 
 
 " Colonels Lyons, Jones, and Major Cooke are charged with 
 the execution of this order so far as relates to their several 
 commands, and they will promulgate the same by causing it to be 
 read distinctly at the head of each company at morning roll call. 
 
 " By order of Benj. F. Butler, Brig-Gen. Commandmq. 
 "Edward (1. Parker, 
 
 ''Lieut. Col, Aide-de-Ccmp.'' 
 
 THE OCCUPATION OF BALTIMORE. 
 
 On tlie thirteenth of May he received, or rather from 
 the tenor of the despatch from one of General Scott's staff 
 believed he received, permission to go to Baltimore, and 
 on the afternoon of that day placed on board a train of 
 cars the Sixth Massachusetts, a portion of the Eighth New 
 York and two pieces of artillery. Rebel spies, however, 
 were watching the movements, and a ruse was necessary. 
 A short train was also made ready, and fifty men having 
 taken their position in the cars, the two trains moved towards 
 Harper's Ferry, but when the second mile-post had been 
 passed, the smaller one continued on its supposed danger- 
 ous trip to Frederick, from thence to bring back under 
 guard Koss Winans, wdiile the other returned to the Pvclay 
 House,. and from there backed rapidly to Baltimore. The 
 men alighted about eight o'clock p.m., in the midst of a 
 terrific rain-storm, and marched through the principal > 
 streets to Federal Hill, a high eminence extending into the 
 harbor and commanding the entire city. On the follow- 
 
44 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 ing morning he published in one of the daily newspapers 
 the following Proclamation : 
 
 PEOCLAMATION 
 
 " Department of Annapoijs, 
 "Federal Hill, Baltimore, May 14, 186L 
 
 " A detachment of the forces of the Federal government, 
 under my command, have occupied the city of Baltimore for 
 the purpose, among other things, of enforcing respect and obe- 
 dience to the hxws, as well of the State, if requested thereto by 
 the civil authorities, as of the United States laws, which are 
 being violated witliin its limits by some malignant and traitor- 
 ous men ; and in order to testify the acceptance by the Federal 
 government, of the fact that the city and all the well-intentioned 
 portion of its inhabitants are loyal to the Union and the Con- 
 stitution, and are to be so regarded a)id treated by all. To the 
 end, therefore, that all misunderstanding of the purpose of the 
 government may be prevented, and to set at rest all unfounded, 
 false, and seditious rumors ; to relieve all apprehensions, if any 
 are felt, by the well-disposed portion of the community, and to 
 make it thoroughly understood by all traitors, their aiders and 
 abettors, that rebellious acts must cease ; I hereby, by the au- 
 thority vested in me, as commander of the department of An- 
 napolis, of which Baltimore forms a part, do now command and 
 make known that no loyal and well-dispose'd citizen will be 
 disturbed in his lawful occupation or business ; that private 
 property will not be interfered with by the men under my com- 
 mand, or allowed to be interfered with by others, except in so 
 far as it may be used to afford aid and comfort to those in 
 rebellion against the government whether here or elsewhere, all 
 of which property, munitions of war, and that fitted to aid and 
 support the rebellion, will be seized and held subject to con- 
 fiscation, and, therefore, all manufacturers of arms and munitions 
 of war are hereby requested to report to me forthwith, so that 
 the lawfulness of their occupation may be kriown and under- 
 stood, and all misconstruction of their doings may be avoided. 
 No transportation from the city to the rebels of articles fitted 
 to aid and support troops in the field will be permitted ; and the 
 fact of such transportation, after the publication of this proc- 
 lamation, will be taken and received as proof of illegal intention 
 on the part of the consignors, and will render the goods liable 
 to seizure and confiscation. 
 
 " The government being now ready to receive all such stores 
 and supplies, arrangements will be made to contract for them 
 immediately to the owners; and manufacturers of such articles 
 of equipment and clothing-, and munitions of war and provi- 
 sions, are desired to keep themselves in communication with the 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 45 
 
 comraissary-pfonenil, in order that tlieir workshops may be em- 
 })Iov{h] for \oyd\ purposes, and the artisans of the city resume 
 and carry on their profitable occupations. 
 
 _ " The acting assistant-quartermaster and commissary of sub- 
 sistence of the United States here stationed, has been instructed 
 to procure and furnish, at fair })rices, 40,000 rations for the use 
 of the army of tlu.^ United States ; and further supplies will be 
 drawn from the city to the full extent of its capacity, if the 
 patriotic and loyal men choose so to furnish supplies. 
 
 "All assemblages, except the ordinary police, of armed bodies 
 of men,^other than those regularly organized and commissioned 
 by the State of Maryland, and acting- under the orders of the 
 governor thereof, for drill and other purposes, are forbidden 
 within the department. 
 
 "AH officers of the militia of Maryland, having- command 
 within the limits of the departnient, are requested to report 
 through their officers forthwith to the general in command, so 
 that he may be able to know and distinguish the regularly com- 
 missioned and loyal troops of Maryland, from armed bodies who 
 may claim to be such. 
 
 _ " The ordinary operations of the corporate government of the 
 city of Baltimore, and of the civil authorities,' will not be inter- 
 fered with ; but on the contrary, will be aided by all the power 
 of the commanding general, upon proper call being made ; and 
 all such authorities are cordially invited to co-operate with the 
 general in command, to carry out the purposes set forth in the 
 proclamation, so that the city of Baltimore may be shown to 
 the country to be what she is in f\ict, patriotic and loyal to the 
 Union, the Constitution, and the laws. 
 
 " No flag, banner, ensign or device of the so-called Confed- 
 erate States, or any of them, will be permitted to be raised or 
 shown in this department ; and the exhibition of either of them 
 by evil-disposed persons will be deemed, and taken to be, evi- 
 dence of a design to afford aid and comfort to the enemies of 
 the country. To make it the more apparent that the govern- 
 ment of the United States far more relies upon the loyaltv, 
 patriotism, and zeal of the good citizens of Baltimore and 
 vicinity, than upon any exhibition of force calculated to in- 
 timidate them into that obedience to the laws which the gov- 
 ernment doubts not will be paid from inherent respect and love 
 of order, the commanding general has brought to the city with 
 liim, of the many thousand troops in the immediate neighbor- 
 hood, which might be at once concentrated here, scarcely more 
 than an ordinary guard ; and until it fails him, he will continue to 
 rely upon that loyalty and patriotism of the citizens of Maryland, 
 which have never yet been found wanting to the government 
 in time of need. The general in command desires to greet and 
 treat in this part of his department all the citizens thereof as 
 friends and brothers, having a common purpose, a common 
 
46 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 loyalty, and a common country. Any infractions of the laws 
 by the troops under his command, or any disorderly, unsoldier- 
 like conduct, or any interference with private property, he de- 
 sires to have immediately reported to him, and pledges himself 
 that if any soldier so far forgets himself as to break those laws 
 that he has sworn to defend and enforce, he shall be must 
 rigorously punished. 
 
 " The general believes that if the suggestions and requests 
 contained in this proclamation are faithfully carried out by the 
 co-operation of all good and Union-loving citizens, and peace, 
 and quiet, and certainty of future peace and quiet are thus re- 
 stored, business will resume its accustomed channels, trade take 
 the place of dullness and inactivity, efficient labor displace idle- 
 ness, and Baltimore will be, in fact, what she is entitled to be — 
 in the front rank of the commercial cities of the nation. 
 
 " Given at Baltimore the day and year herein first above 
 written. "Bknj. F. Bqtler, 
 
 ^'Brigadier- General Coinmmiding 
 
 ''Department of Annapolis^ 
 
 The traitors in Baltimore saw by the wording of the 
 Proclamation that, if they attempted to interfere with its 
 provisions, they had no common man to deal with, and 
 although General Butler and his staff dined on the day 
 after the occupation in a hotel in one of the principal 
 streets, and the soldiers walked as their pleasure dictated 
 through the highways and byways, no disorder was mani- 
 fested. The Stars and Stripes floated from numerous 
 public buildings and private houses, and save the presence 
 of armed men, the bristling cannon on Federal Hill, and 
 the not unfrequent seizure of arms and supplies destined 
 for the enemy, there was nothing to denote the true con- 
 dition of affairs. 
 
 HE IS BELIEVED FROM COMMAND. 
 
 His satisfactory rule, however, was to be of short dura- 
 tion. The despatch authorizing him to go to Baltimore 
 had not been shown by the staff-officer to General Scott, 
 and that commander notified General Butler that the 
 "hazardous occupation" had been made without his knowl- 
 edge and approbation, and that it was a God-send that it 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GEXERAL BUTLER. 47 
 
 was without conflict of arms. The result was that Gen- 
 eral Butler was relieved of the command of the Depart- 
 ment of Annapolis and ordered to Washington, where on 
 the evening of his arrival he was serenaded and responded 
 in a neat speech. After referring in his remarks to the 
 patriotic course of Massachusetts in this and previous 
 wars, he continued : 
 
 "Many things in a man's life may be worse than death. 80, 
 to a government there may be many things, snch as dishonor 
 and disintegration, worse than the shedding of blood. [Cheers. J 
 Our fathers purchased our liberty and country for us at an im- 
 mense cost of treasure and blood, and by the bright heavens 
 above us, we will not part with them without first paying the 
 original debt and the interest to this date ! [Loud cheers.] 
 We have in our veins the same blood as they shed ; we have 
 the same power of endurance, the same love of liberty and 
 law. We will hold as a brother him who stands by the. Union ; 
 we will hold as an enemy him who would strike from its con- 
 stellation a single star. [Applause.] But, I hear some one 
 say, 'Shall we carry on this fratricidal war? Shall we shed 
 our brothers' blood, and meet in arms our brothers in the South ?' 
 I would say, 'As our fathers did not hesitate to strike the mother 
 country in the defence of our rights, so we should not hesitate 
 to meet the brother as they did the mother.' If this unholy, 
 this fratricidal war, is forced upon us, I say, ' Woe, woe to them 
 who have made the necessity.' Our hands are clean, our hearts 
 are pure ; but the Union must be preserved [intense cheering. 
 When silence was restored, he continued] at all hazard of 
 money, and, if need be, of every life this side of the arctic re- 
 gions. [Cheers.] If the 25,000 northern soldiers who are here 
 are cut off, in six weeks 50,000 will take their place ; and if they 
 die by fever, pestilence, or the sword, a quarter of a million 
 will take their place, till our army of the reserve will be women 
 with their broomsticks, to drive every enemy into the gulf. 
 [Cheers and laughter.] I have neither fear nor doubt of the 
 issue. I feel only horror and dismay for those who have made 
 the war. God help them ! we are here for our rights, for our 
 country, for our flag. Our faces are set south, and there shall 
 be no footstep backward. [Immense applause.] He is mis- 
 taken who supposes we can be intimidated by threats or cajoled 
 by compromise. The day of compromise is past. 
 
 " 'I'he government must be sustained [cheers]; and when it 
 is sustained, we shall give everybody in the Union their rights 
 under the Constitution, as we always have, and everybody out- 
 side of the Union the steel of the* Union, till they shall come 
 under the Union." 
 3 
 
48 LIFE OF MAJOR-GEXERAL BUTLER. 
 
 HE IS APPOINTED MAJOR-GENERAL AND 
 ORDERED TO FORTRESS MONROE. 
 
 Although removed from Baltimore at the moment of 
 his greatest usefulness, he was not destined to remain long 
 idle, and on the sixteenth of May, he was honored with 
 the appointment of Major-General of Volunteers, and 
 ordered to take command at Fortress Monroe. He was 
 informed that nine regiments would soon arrive at that 
 point, which, as the fortress was then well garrisoned, 
 should be encamped outside of and near the fortification. 
 Fifteen hundred men within the fort were considered 
 adequate to resist any attack that might be made by the 
 enemy, and the remainder of the force was to be used for 
 aggressive purposes. The following objects w^ere particu- 
 larly referred to : 
 
 " 1st. Not to let the enemy erect batteries to annoy Fortress 
 Monroe ; 2d. To capture any batteries the enemy may have 
 within a half day's march of you, and which may be reached by 
 land ; 3d. The same in respect to the enemy's batteries, at or 
 about Craney Island, though requiring water craft; and 4th. To 
 menace and to recapture the navy yard at Gosport, in order to 
 complete its destruction, with its contents, except what it may 
 be practicable to bring away in safety." 
 
 He assumed command on the twenty-second of May, 
 and immediately commenced preparing for an energetic 
 administration of affairs on the Peninsula, hemmed in 
 as it was on the land side by rebel pickets and their sup- 
 ports, while from the opposite shore the traitors' flags 
 waved defiance, and their stolen pieces of artillery 
 threatened destruction to our transports and their living 
 cargoes. On the twenty-third, General Butler determined 
 to make areconnoissance towards Hampton, then a beauti- 
 ful town, the birthplace of many of the most aristocratic 
 of Yirgiuia's chivalry, and a favorite summer resort. 
 Colonel Phelps' regiment of Vermonters was detailed 
 to accompany him, and as they marched towards the 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 49 
 
 bridge across Hampton creek, the enemy attempted to 
 frustrate the movement by firing the structure. The 
 Vermont men, however, took the " double-quick," and 
 reaching the bridge, extinguished the flame and dispersed 
 their opponents. A site for an encampment was selected 
 between the village and the fortress, and the next day 
 General Butler rode to Newport News, which he occupied 
 and began fortifying, deeming it, from its position on 
 James river, a most important point. 
 
 THE ABOLITION OP SLAVERY INAUGURATED 
 -STAMPEDE OF CONTRABAISTDS. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth instant, an event occurred which, 
 in its sequel, gave the Southern people for the first time 
 to understand that the abolition of slavery was to be one of 
 the grand results of their treason. Three slaves, the prop- 
 erty of Colonel Mallory, commander of the rebel forces near 
 Hampton, came into our lines seeking protection, and 
 asserting that their master was about sending them to 
 North Carolina to work on the fortifications. General 
 Butler declared them " contraband of war," and set them 
 at work. The next afternoon a Major Carey of the 
 Virginia service requested an interview, and upon General 
 Butler acceding to the request a conversation of no 
 little interest ensued. Major Carey desiring to know if a 
 passage through the blockading fleet would be allowed 
 the families of citizens of Virginia, who might desire to 
 go to a place of safety, the General replied that he was 
 under the necessity of refusing the privilege, as the 
 presence of the families of belligerents is always the best 
 hostage for their good behavior. Another reason was 
 that one of the objects of the blockade was to prevent the 
 admission of supplies, and reducing the number of con- 
 sumers would necessarily thwart the object in view. 
 Major Carey then continued : " I am informed that three 
 
50 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 negroes, belon<^ing to Colonel Mallory, have escaped 
 within your lines. I am his agent and wish to know what 
 you intend to do with them." 
 
 General Butler: "I propose to retain them." 
 
 Major Carey : "Do you intend to set aside your con- 
 stitutional obligations ?" 
 
 General Butler : " I mean to abide by the decision of 
 Virginia, as expressed in her ordinance of secession, 
 passed day before yesterday. I am under no constitu- 
 tional obligations to a foreign country, which Virginia 
 now^ claims to be. I shall detain the negroes as contra- 
 band of war. It is merely a question whether they shall 
 be used for or against the government. Nevertheless, if 
 Colonel Mallory will come into the fort and take the oath of 
 allegiance to the United States, he shall have his negroes, 
 and I will endeavor to hire them from him." This 
 response terminated the interview. 
 
 The blessings of freedom thus given by this Massachu- 
 setts liberator to the three slaves or '' contrabands," as 
 they were from that day called, naturally induced others 
 to seek the same boon, and day and night they came in, 
 singly, by tens and by scores, until nearly a thousand of 
 both sexes and all ages had been provided with quarters, 
 and the older representatives of the barbarous institutioij 
 made useful ia various ways in and around the fortress. 
 He wrote to General Scott asking what course he should 
 pursue, as follows : 
 
 ** Since I wrote my last," he said, " the question in regard 
 to slave property is becoming one of very serious magnitude. 
 The inhabitants of Virginia are using their negroes in the 
 batteries, and are preparing to setid their women and chiklren 
 south. The escapes from them are very numerous, and a squad 
 has come in this morning, and my pickets are bringing their 
 women and children. Of course these cannot be dealt with 
 upon the theory on which I designed to treat the services of 
 able-bodied men and women who might come within my lines, 
 and of which I gave you a detailed account in my last despatch. 
 
 *' I am in the utmost doubt what to do with this species of 
 
LIFE OF MAJOE-GENEEAL BUTLEE. 51 
 
 property. Up to this time I have had come within my lines 
 men and women, with their chihlren, entire families, each 
 family belonging to the same owner. I have, therefore, de- 
 termined to employ, as I can do very profitably, the able-bodied 
 persons in the party, issuing- proper food for the support of all, 
 and charging against their services the expenses of care and 
 sustenance of the non-laborers, keeping a strict and accurate 
 account as well of the services as of the expenditures, havings 
 the worth of the services, and the cost of the expenditures de- 
 termined by a board of survey hereafter to be detailed. I know 
 of no other manner in which to dispose of this subject, and the 
 questions connected therewith. As a matter of property, to 
 the insurgents it will he of very great moment, the number that 
 I now have amounting, as I am informed, to what in good times 
 would be of the value of $60,000. 
 
 "Twelve of these negroes, I am informed, have escaped from 
 the erection of the batteries on Sewall's Point, which fired on 
 my expedition as it passed by out of range. As a means of 
 offence, therefore, in the enemy's hands, these negroes, when 
 able-bodied, are of great importance. Without them the 
 batteries could not have been erected, at least for many weeks, 
 As a military question, it would seem to be a measure of 
 necessity, and deprives their master of their services. 
 
 "How can this be done? As a political question, and a 
 question of humanity, can I receive the services of a father and 
 a mother, and not take the children? Of the humanitarian 
 aspect I have no doubt ; of the political one I have no right to 
 judge. I therefore submit all this to your better judgment ; and, 
 as these questions have a political aspect, T have ventured, and 
 I trust I am not wrong in so doing, to duplicate the parts of my 
 despatch relating to this subject, and forward them to the 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Benjamin F. Butler." 
 
 'Flie Secretary of War replied, May 30th: "Your action in 
 respect to the negroes who came within your lines, from the 
 .service of the rebels, is approved. The department is sensible 
 of the embarrassments which must surround officers conducting 
 military operations in a State, by the laws of which slavery is 
 sanctioned. The government cannot recognize the rejection by 
 any State of its Federal obligation ; resting upon itself, among 
 these Federal obligations, however, no one can be more im- 
 portant than that of suppressing and dispersing any combina- 
 tion of the former for the purpose of overthrowing its whole 
 constitutional authority. While, therefore, you will permit no 
 interference, by persons under your command, with the relations 
 of persons held to service under the laws of any State, you will 
 on the other hand, so long as an}' State within which your 
 military operations are conducted, remains under the control of 
 
52 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 such armed combinations, refrain from surrendering to alleged 
 masters any persons who come within your lines. You will 
 employ such persons in the services to which they will be best 
 adapted, keeping an account of the labor by them performed, 
 of the value of it, and the expenses of their maintenance. The 
 question of their final disposition will be reserved for future 
 determination. "Simon Cameron-, 
 
 ^'Secretary of War'' 
 
 The stampede from the Peninsular counties of Yirginia 
 necessarily caused a great commotion among the white 
 population, and every species of subterfuge was adopted 
 to recover the lost property. Among other anecdotes 
 related is the following : An elderly planter, who had 
 owned about forty slaves, came to the fort on one occa- 
 sion, and requesting that one of his negroes, Avho had 
 escaped, might be returaed, gave the following amusing 
 account of the exodus : 
 
 " I have always treated my negroes kindly. I supposed they 
 loved me. Last Sunday, I went to church. When I returned 
 from church, and entered into my house, I called Mary to take 
 oif my coat and hang it up. But Mary did not come. And 
 again I called Mary in a louder voice, but I received no answer. 
 Then I went into the room to find Mary, but I found her not. 
 There was no one in the room. I went into the kitchen. There 
 was no one in the kitchen. I went into the garden. There 
 was no one in the garden. I went to the negro quarters. There 
 was no one at the negro quarters. All my negroes had departed, 
 sir, while I was at the house of Grod. Then I went back again 
 into my house. And soon there came to me James, who has 
 been my bod^'-servant for many years. And I said to James : 
 " * James, what has hai)pened V 
 
 *' And James said, 'All the people have gone to the fort.' 
 "* AVhile I was gone to the house of God, James?' 
 "And James said, ' Yes, master ; they're all ^one.' 
 "And I said to James, ' Why didn't you go too, James?' 
 "And James said, * Master, I'll never leave you.' 
 "' Well, James,' said I, ' as there's nobody to cook, see if you 
 can get me some cold victuals and some whisky.' 
 
 " So James got me some cold victuals, and I ate them with a 
 heavy heart. And when I had eaten, I said to James : 
 
 " • James, it is of no use for us to stay here. Let us go to 
 your mistress.' 
 
 "His mistress, sir, had gone away from her home, eleven 
 miles, fleeing from the dangers of the war. 
 
 " 'And, so, James,' said I, ' harness the best horse to the cart, 
 
LIFE OF MAJOKGENERAL BUTLER. 53 
 
 and put into the cart our best bed, and some bacon, and some 
 corn meal, and James, some whisky, and we will go unto your 
 mistress.' 
 
 "And James did even as I told him, and some few necessaries 
 besides. And we started. It was a heavy load for the horse. I 
 trudged along on foot, and James led the horse. It was late at 
 night, sir, when we arrived, and 1 said to James : 
 
 " ' James, it is of no use to unload the cart to-night. Put 
 the horse into the barn, and uidoad the cart in the morning.' 
 
 "And James said, 'Yes, master.' 
 
 " I met my wife, sir ; I embraced her, and went to bed ; and, 
 notwithstanding my troubles, I slept soundly. The next morn- 
 ing, James was gone! Then I came here, and the first thing I 
 saw, when 1 got here, was James peddling cabbages to your men 
 out of that very cart." 
 
 General Butler made an early effort to place Newport 
 News in a defensive and offensive condition, because he 
 believed the batteries there would be a perpetual menace 
 to the rebel capital. He then proposed attacking and 
 taking the rebel works at Pig Point, commanding the 
 Nansemond river, and then proceeding up the Nansemond 
 and occupying Suffolk, destroy the railroads leading from 
 Norfolk to Richmond and to the South. Norfolk hemmed 
 in, would thus be compelled to succumb. His proposition 
 was submitted to the General-in-Chief, with the request 
 that full and explicit instructions might be sent him ; but 
 while a portion of his plans were acquiesced in, there were 
 unfortunately no vessels to co-operate with him, and 
 neither at that time nor for some weeks thereafter any 
 horses except nine which General Butler had brought from 
 his own private stable at Lowell, to temporarily relieve 
 the pressing wants of the service. 
 
 THE DISASTER AT GREAT BETHEL. 
 
 On the tenth of June, 1861, the unfortunate affair at 
 Great Bethel took place — a disaster which horrified the 
 people of the loyal States and wliich lost to the country 
 two of its most gallant officers, the brave young Greble 
 of Philadelphia and the lamented Winthrop of Massachu- 
 
54 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 setts. Our limited space will not permit us to give the 
 details of the fig'ht, but the following official report of 
 General Butler contains the main facts : 
 
 General Butler's Official Report. 
 
 " Head-quarters, Department of Virginia, 
 " Fortress Monroe, June 10, 1861. 
 **To Lieutenant-Genekal Scott : 
 
 " General : — Having learned that the enemy had established 
 an outpost of some strength at a place called Little Bethel, a 
 small church about eight miles from Newport News, and the 
 same distance from Hampton, from whence they were accus- 
 tomed nightly to advance both on Newport News and the picket 
 guards of Hampton to annoy them, and from whence also they 
 had come down in small squads of cavalry and taken a number 
 of Union men, some of whom had the safeguard and protection 
 of the troops of the United States, and forced them into the 
 rebel ranks, and that they were also gathering up the slaves of 
 citizens who had moved away and left their farms in charge of 
 their negroes, carrying them to work in intrenchments at Wil- 
 liamsburg and Yorktown, I had determined to send up a force 
 to drive them back and destroy their camp, the head-quarters 
 of which was this small church, I had also learned that at a 
 place a short distance further on, on the road to Yorktown, was 
 an outwork of the rebels, on the Hampton side of a place called 
 Big Bethel, a large church, near the head of the north branch 
 of Back river, and that there was a very considerable rendez- 
 vous, with works of more or less strength in process of erection, 
 and from this point the whole country was laid under contri- 
 bution. 
 
 " Accordingly, I ordered General Pierce, who is in command 
 of Camp Hamilton, at Hampton, to send Duryea's regiment of 
 Zouaves to be ferried over Hampton creek at one o'clock this 
 morning, and to march by the road up to Newmarket Bridge, 
 then crossing the bridge, to go by a by-road and thus |)ut the 
 regiment in the rear of the enemy, and between Big Bethel and 
 Little Bethel, in part for the purpose of cutting him otf, and 
 then to make an attack upon Little Bethel, I directed General 
 Pierce to support him hoxw Hampton with Colonel Townsend's 
 regiment, with two mounted howitzers, and to march about an 
 hour later. At the same time 1 directed Col. Phelps, com 
 manding at Newport News, to send out a battalion, composed 
 of such companies of the regiments under his command as he 
 thought best, under command of Lieutenant-Colonel Wash^ 
 burn, in time to make a demonstration upon Little Bethel in 
 front, and to have him supported Vty Colonel Bendix's regiment, 
 With two field-pieces. 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 55 
 
 "Bendix's and Townsend's regiments should effect a junction 
 at a fork of the road leading from Hampton to Newport News, 
 something like a mile and a half from Little Bethel. 1 directed 
 the march to be so timed that the attack should be made just 
 at daybreak, and that after the attack was made upon Little 
 Bethel, IHiryea's regiment and a regiment from Newport News 
 should follow immediately upon the heels of the fugitives, if 
 they were enabled to cut them off, and attack the battery on 
 the road to Big Bethel, while covered by the fugitives ; or, if it 
 was thought expedient by General Pierce, failing to surprise the 
 camp at Little Bethel, they should attempt to take the work 
 near Big Bethel. 
 
 " To prevent the possibility of mistake in the darkness, I 
 directed that no attack should be made until the watchword 
 should be shouted by the attacking regiment, and, in case that 
 by any mistake in the march the regiments that were to make 
 the junction should unexpectedly meet and be unknown to each 
 other, also directed that the members of Colonel Townsend's regi- 
 ment should be known, if in daylight, by something white worn 
 on the arm. The troops were accordingly put in action as or- 
 dered, and the march was so timed that Colonel Duryea had got 
 in the position noted upon the accompanying sketch, and Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Washburn, in command of the regiment from 
 Newport News, had got into the position indicated upon the 
 sketch, and Colonel Bendix's regiment had been posted and or- 
 dered to hold the fork of the road, with two pieces of artillery, 
 and Colonel Townsend's regiment had got to the place indicated 
 just behind, and were about to form a junction as the day 
 dawned. 
 
 " Up to this point the plan had been vigorously, accurately, 
 and successfully carried out ; but here, by some strange fatuity, 
 and as yet unexplained blunder, without any word of notice, 
 while Colonel Townsend was in column en roiUe, and when the 
 head of the column was within one hundred yards, Col. Bendix's 
 regiment opened tire with both artillery and musketry upon Col. 
 Townsend's column, which, in the hurry and confusion, was 
 irregularly returned by some of Col. Townsend's men, who 
 feared that they had fallen into an ambuscade. Col. Town- 
 send's column immediately retreated to the eminence near by, 
 and were not pursued by Col. Bendix's men. By this almost 
 criminal blunder two men of Col. Townsend's regiment were 
 killed, and eight more or less wounded. 
 
 " Hearing this canonnading and firing in his rear, Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Washburn, not knowing but that his communication 
 might be cut off", immediately reversed his march, as did Col. 
 Duryea, and marched back to form a junction with his reserves. 
 
 " General Pierce, who was with Colonel Townsend's regiment, 
 fearing that the enemy had got notice of our approach, and had 
 pobted himself in force on the line of march, and not getting 
 
56 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 any communication from Col. Diiryea, sent back to me for rein- 
 fuicements, and I immediately ordered Col. Allen's regiment to 
 be put in motion, and they reached Hampton about seven o'clock. 
 In the meantime the true state of facts having been ascertained 
 by General Pierce, the regiments eifected a junction, and re- 
 sumed the line of march. At the moment of the tiring of 
 Cilonel Bendix, (Colonel Duryea had surprised a part of an outlay- 
 ing guard of the enemy, consisting of thirty persons, who have 
 been brought in to me 
 
 " Of course by tliis firing all hope of a surprise above the 
 camp at Little Bethel was lost, and, upon marching upon it, it 
 was found to have been vacated, and the cavalry had pressed on 
 towai'd Big Bethel. Col. Duryea, however, desti'oyed the camp 
 at Little Bethel, and advanced, (xeneral Pierce, then, as h« 
 informs me, with the advice of his colonels, thought best to at- 
 tempt to carry the works of the enemy at Big Bethel, and made 
 dispositions to that effect. The attack commenced, as I am in- 
 formed — for I have not 3'et received any official reports — about 
 half-past nine o'clock. 
 
 " At about ten o'clock General Fierce sent a note to me say- 
 ing that there was a sharp engagement with the enemy, and that 
 he thought he should be able to maintain his position until rein- 
 foicements could come up. Acting upon this information, 
 Colonel Carr's regiment, which had been ordered in the morning 
 to proceed as far as Newmarket Bridge, was allowed to go for- 
 ward. I received this information, for which I had sent a special 
 messenger, about twelve o'clock. I immediately made disposi- 
 tion from Newport News to have Colonel Phelps, from the four 
 regiments there, forward aid if necessary. As soon as these or- 
 ders could be sent forward I repaired to Hampton, for the pur- 
 pose of having proper ambulances and wagons for the sick and 
 wounded, intending to go forward an-d join the command. 
 While the wagons were going forward a messenger came, an- 
 nouncing that the engagement had ter-»Hnated, and that the 
 troops were retiring in good order to camp. 
 
 " I remained upon the ground at Hampton, personally seeing 
 the wounded put in boats and towed round to the hospital, and 
 ordered forward Lieutenant Morris, with two boat howitzers, to 
 cover the rear of the returning column in case it should be at- 
 tacked. Having been informed that the ammunition of the 
 artillery had been expended, and seeing the head of the column 
 approach Hampton in good order, I waited for General Pierce 
 to come up. I am informed by him that the dead and wounded 
 had all been brought off, and that the return had been conducted 
 in good order, and without haste. I learned from him that the 
 men behaved with great steadiness, with the exception of some 
 few instances, and that the attack was made with propriety, 
 vigor, and courage ; but that the enemy were found to be sup- 
 ported by a battery, variously estimated as of from fifteen to 
 
LIFE OF MAJOE-GENERAL BUTLER. 57 
 
 twentj^ pieces, some of which were rifled cannon, which were 
 very well served, and protected from being readily turned by a 
 creek in front. 
 
 " Our loss is very considerable, amounting perhaps to forty or 
 fifty, a quarter part of which you will see was from the unfor- 
 tunate mistake — to call it by no worse name — of Colonel 
 Bendix. 
 
 " I will, as soon as official returns can be got, give a fuller de- 
 tail of the affair, and will only add now that we have to regret 
 especially the death of Lieutenant Greble, of the Second Artil- 
 lery, who went out with Colonel Washburn from Newport News, 
 and who very efficiently and gallantly fought his piece until he 
 was struck by a cannon-shot. I will endeavor to get accurate 
 statements to forward by the next mail, 
 
 " I think, in the unfortunate combination of circumstances, 
 and the result which we have experienced, we have gained more 
 than we have lost. Our troops have learned to have confidence in 
 themselves under fire, the enemy have shown that they will not 
 meet us in the open field, and our officers have learned wherein 
 their organization and drill are inefficient. 
 
 " While waiting for the official reports, I have the honor to 
 submit thus far the information of which I am possessed. 
 "I have the honor to be, most respectfully, 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Benj. p. Butler, 
 " Major- General Commanding ^ 
 
 Two days later General Butler bad an interesting cor- 
 respondence with Colonel, now General, J. Bankhead 
 Magruder, in reference to the exchange of a soldier in our 
 possession, which terminated in a satisfactory exchange 
 being effected. On the twenty-sixth of the same month 
 he addressed a letter to the Secretary of War, suggesting 
 for the benefit of the service that a commission should be 
 appointed to investigate the capabilities of the different 
 officers for command, 
 
 HIS ANTI-LIQUOR HEGULATIONS. 
 
 During General Butler's term at the fortress he strictly 
 prohibited the plundering of abandoned houses, and was 
 equally hostile to indulgence in spirituous liquors. 
 
 At one time a sutler's book came into his possession in 
 which were entered numerous liquor accounts of officers. 
 
58 LIFE OF MAJOR-GEXERAL BUTLER. 
 
 He had taken measures to prevent its use amoug the men, 
 but had presumed thai officers might be trusted. Finding, 
 however, that his confidence had been misplaced, he issued 
 a special order turning over all the spirits to the Medical 
 Department, prohibiting its sale or use except as a medi- 
 cine, and concluding as follows : 
 
 "The general commanding does not desire to conceal the 
 fact that iie has been accustomed to the use of wine and liquors 
 in his own quarters, and to furnish them to his friends ; but as 
 he desires never to ask either officers or men to undergo any 
 privation which he will not share with them, he will not exempt 
 himself from the operation of this order, but will not use it in 
 his own quarters, as he would disconrag-e its use in the quarters 
 of any other officer. Amid the many sacrifices of time, prop- 
 erty, health and life, which the officers and soldiers of his com- 
 mand are making in the service of their country, the general 
 commanding feels confident that this, so slight, but so necessary 
 a sacrifice of a luxury, and pandering to appetite, will be borne 
 most cheerfully^ now that its evil is seen and appreciated." 
 
 On the twenty-sixth of July, General Butler was startled 
 from his usual composure by an order of the Government, 
 the purport of which will be seen from the following cor- 
 respondeno«e : 
 
 General Butler to Slmox Camerox. 
 
 '• Head-Quarters, Depart.mext of Virginia, 
 " Fortress Monroe, July 30, 18G1. 
 "Hon. Simon Cameron, Secretary of War: 
 
 *• Sir : — By an order received on the morning of the 26th 
 July from Major-General Dix, by a telegraphic order from 
 Lieuteuant-Geiieral Scott, I was commanded to forward, of the 
 troops of this department, four regiments and a half, including 
 Colonel Baker's California regiment, to Washington, via Balti° 
 more. This order reached me at 2 o'clock a.m., by special boat 
 from Baltimore. Believing that it emanated because of some 
 pressing exigency for the defence of AVashington, I issued my 
 orders before daybreak for the embarkation of the troops, send- 
 ing those who were among the very best regiments I had. In 
 the couTse of the following day they were all embarked for Bal- 
 timore, with the exception of some four hundred, for whom I 
 had not transportation, although I had all the transport force in 
 the hands of the quartermaster here to aid the bay line of 
 steamers, which, by the same order from the lieutenant-general, 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR- GENERAL BUTLER. 59 
 
 was directed to furnish transportation. Up to, and at the time 
 of the order, I had been preparing for an advance movement, by 
 which I hoped to cripple the resources of the enemv at York- 
 town, and especially by seizing a large quantity of negroes who 
 were being pressed into their service in building the intrench- 
 ments there. I had five days previously been enabled to mount, 
 for the first time, the first'conipany of light artillery, which I 
 had been empowered to raise, and they had but a single rifled 
 cannon, an iron six-pounder. Of course, every thing must and 
 did yield to the supposed exigency and the orders. This order- 
 ing away the troops from this department, while it weakened 
 the posts at Newport News, necessitated the withdrawal of tlie 
 troops from Hampton, where I was then throwing up intrenched 
 works to enable me to hold the town with a small force, while I 
 advanced up the York or James river. In the village of 
 Hampton there was a large number of negroes, composed in a 
 great measure of women and children of the men who had fled 
 thither within my lines for protection, who had escaped from 
 marauding parties of rebels who had been gathering up able- 
 bodied blacks to aid them in constructing their batteries on the 
 James and York rivers. I had employed the men in Hampton 
 in throwing up intrenchments, and they were working zealously 
 and efiScieutly at that duty, saving our soldiers from that labor 
 under the gleam of the mid-day sun. The women vrere earning 
 substantially their own subsistence in washing, marketing, and 
 taking care of the clothes of the soldiers, and rations were be- 
 ing served out to the men who worked for the support of the 
 children. But by the evacuation of Hampton, rendered neces- 
 sary by the withdrawal of troops, leaving me scarcely five thou- 
 sand men outside the fort, including the force at Newport News, 
 all these black people were obliged to break up their homes at 
 Hampton, fleeing across the creek within my lines for protection 
 and support. Indeed, it was a most distressing sight to see 
 these poor creatures, who had trusted to the protection of the 
 arms of the United States, and who aided the troops of the 
 United States in their enterprise, to be thus obliged to flee from 
 their homes, and the homes of their masters who had deserted 
 them, and become fugitives from fear of the return of the rebel 
 soldiery, who had threatened to shoot the men who had wrought 
 for us.' and to carry oft the women who had served us, to a 
 worse than Egyptian bondage. I have, therefore, now within 
 the peuinsala, "this side of Hampton creek, nine hundred 
 negroes, three hundred of whom are able-bodied men, thirty of 
 whom are men substantially past hard labor, one hundred and 
 seventy-five women, two hundred and twenty-five children under 
 the age of ten years, and one hundred and seventy between ten 
 and eighteen ^ears, and many more coming in. The questions 
 which^this state of facts present are very embarrassing. 
 
60 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 ''First. AVhat shall be done with them ? and, Second. What 
 is their state and condition ? 
 
 " Upon these questions 1 desire the instructions of the depart- 
 ment. 
 
 " The first question, however, may perhaps be answered by 
 considering the last. Are these men, women, and children 
 slaves ? Are they free ? Is their condition that of men, women, 
 and children, or of property, or is it a mixed relation ? What 
 their status was under the constitution and laws, we all know. 
 What has been the effect of a rebellion and a state of war upon 
 that status? When I adopted the theory of treating the able- 
 bodied negro fit to work in the trenches as property liable to be 
 used in aid of rebellion, and so contraband of war, that condi- 
 tion of things was in so far met, as I then and still believe, on a 
 legal and constitutional basis. But now a new series of ques- 
 tions arise. Passing by women, the children, certainly, cannot 
 be treated on that basis ; if property, they must be considered 
 the incumbrance rather than the auxiliary of an army, and, of 
 course, in no possible legal relation could be treated as contra- 
 band. Are they property? If they were so, they have been 
 left by their masters and owners, deserted, thrown away, aban- 
 doned, like the wrecked vessel upon the ocean. Their former 
 possessors and owners have causelessly, traitorously, rebelliously, 
 and, to carry out the figure, practically abandoned them to be 
 swallowed up by the winter storm of starvation. If property, 
 do they not become the property of the salvors ? But we, 
 their salvors, do not need and will not hold such property, and 
 will assume no such ownership : has not, therefore, all propri(!- 
 tary relation ceased ? Have they not become, thereupon, men, 
 women, and children ? No longer under ownership of any kind, 
 the fearful relicts of fugitive masters, have they not by tlieir 
 masters' acts, and the state of war, assumed the condition, 
 which we hold to be the normal one, of those made in Cod's 
 image? Is not every constitutional, legal, and moral require- 
 ment, as well to the runaway master as their relinquished slaves, 
 thus answered? I confess that my own mind is compelled by 
 this reasoning to look upon them as men and women. If not 
 free-born, yet free, manumitted, sent forth from the hand that 
 held them never to be reclaimed. 
 
 "Of course, if this reasoning, thus imperfectly set forth, is 
 correct, my duty as a humane man is very plain, I should take 
 the same care of these men, women, and children, houseless, 
 homeless, and unprovided for, as I would of the sanve number 
 of men, women, and children, who, for their attachment to the 
 Union, had been driven or allowed to flee from the Confederate 
 States. I should have no doubt on this question, had I not 
 seen it stated that an order had been issued by General Mc- 
 Dowell in his department, substantially forbidding all fugitive 
 Blaves from coming within his lines or being harbored there. Is 
 
LIFE OF MAJOK-GEXEKAL BUTLER. 61 
 
 tliat order to be enforced in all military departments ? If so, 
 who are to be considered fugitive slaves ? Is a slave to be con- 
 sidered fugitive whose master runs away and leaves him? Is it 
 forbidden to the troops to aid or harbor within their lines the 
 negro children who are found therein, or is the soldier, when his 
 march has destroyed their means of subsistence, to allow them 
 to starve because he has driven off the rebel masters ? Now, 
 shall the commander of a regiment or battalion sit in judgment 
 upon the question, whether any given black man has fled from 
 his master, or his master fled from him ? Indeed, how are the 
 free born to be distinguished ? Is one any more or less a fugi- 
 tive slave because he has labored upon the rebel intrenchments ? 
 If he has so labored, if I understand it, he is to be harbored. 
 By the reception of which are the rebels most to be distressed, 
 by taking those who have wrought all their rebel masters de- 
 sired, masked their battery, or those who have refused to labor 
 and left the battery unmasked ? 
 
 " I have very decided opinions upon the subject of this order. 
 It does not become me to criticise it, and I write in no spirit 
 of criticism, but simply to explain the full difficulties that sur- 
 round the enforcing it. If the enforcement of that order 
 becomes the policy of the government, I, as a soldier, shall be 
 bound to enforce it steadfastly, if not cheerfully. But if left to 
 my own discretion, as you may have gathere<l fi'om my reason- 
 ing, I should take a widely different course from that which it 
 indicates. 
 
 " In a loyal State, I would put down a servile insurrection. In 
 a state of rebellion I would confiscate that which was used to op- 
 pose my arms, and take all that property which constituted the 
 wealth of that State, and furnished the means by which the war 
 is prosecuted, beside being the cause of the war; and if, in so 
 doing, it should be objected that human beings were brought to 
 the free enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, 
 such objection might not require much consideration. 
 
 " Pardon me for addressing the Secretary of War directly 
 upon this question, as it involves some political considerations 
 as well as propriety of military action. I am, sir, your obe- 
 dient servant, " Benjamin F. Butler." 
 
 "Simon Cameron to General Butler. 
 
 *• Washington, Augufit 8, 1861. 
 " General : — The important question of the proper disposition 
 to be made of fugitives from service in the States in insurrection 
 against the Federal government, to which you have again directed 
 my attention, in your letter of July 30, has received my most at- 
 tentive consideration. It is the desire of the President that all 
 existing rights in all the States be fully respected and main- 
 tn.iued. The war now prosecuted, on the part of the Federal 
 
62 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 government, is a war for the Union, for the preservation of all 
 the constitutional rights of the States and the citizens of the 
 States of the Union ;" hence no question can arise as to fugitives 
 from service within the States and territories in which the 
 authority of the Union is fully acknowledged. The ordinary 
 forms of judicial proceedings must be respected by the military 
 and civil authorities alike for the enforcement of legal forms. 
 But in the States wholly or in part under insurrectionary con- 
 trol, where the laws of the United States are so far opposed 
 and resisted that they cannot be effectually enforced, it is 
 obvious that the rights dependent upon the execution of these 
 laws must temporarily fail ; and it is equally obvious that the 
 rights dependent on the laws of the States within which military 
 operations are conducted must necessarily be subordinate to the 
 military exigencies created by the insurrection, if not wholly 
 forfeited by ^ the treasonable conduct of the parties claiming 
 them. To this the general rule of the right to service forms an 
 exception. The Act of Congress approved August 6, 1861, 
 declares if persons held to service shall be employed in hostility 
 to the United States, the right to their services shall be dis- 
 charged therefrom. It follows, of necessity, that no claim can 
 be recognized by the military authority of the Union to the 
 services of such persons when fugitives. 
 
 "A more difficult question is presented in respect to persons 
 escaping from the service of loyal masters. It is quite ap- 
 parent that the laws of the State under which only the services 
 of such fugitives can be claimed must needs be wholly or almost 
 wholly superseded, as to the remedies, by the insurrection and 
 the military measures necessitated by it ; and it is equally ap- 
 parent that the substitution of military for judicial measures for 
 the enforcement of such claims must be attended by great incon- 
 venience, embarrassments, and injuries. Under these circum- 
 stances, it seems quite clear that the substantial rights of 
 loyal masters are still best protected by receiving such fugitives, 
 as well as fugitives from disloyal masters, into the service of the 
 United States, and employing them under such organizations 
 and in such occupations as circumstances may suggest or re- 
 quire. Of course a record should be kept showing the names 
 and descriptions of the fugitives, the names and characters, as 
 loyal or disloyal, of the masters, and such facts as may be 
 necessary to a correct understanding of the circumstances of 
 each case. 
 
 "After tranquillity shall have been restored upon the return 
 of peace. Congress will doubtless properly provide for all the 
 persons thus received into the service of the Union, and for a 
 just compensation to loyal masters. In this way only, it would 
 seem, can the duty and safety of the government and just rights 
 of all be fully reconciled and harmonized. You will therefore 
 consider yourself instructed to govern your future action in 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GPJNERAL BUTLER. 63 
 
 respect to fugitives from service by the premises herein stated, 
 and will report, from time to time, and at least twice in each 
 month, your action in the premises to this department. You 
 will, however, neither authorize nor permit any interference by 
 the troops under your command with the servants of peaceable 
 citizens in a house or field, nor will you in any manner en- 
 courage such servants to leave the lawful service of their 
 masters, nor will you, except in cases where the public good 
 may seem to require it, prevent the voluntary return of any 
 fugitive to the service from which he may have escaped. I am, 
 very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 'Simon Cameron, 
 
 " Secretary of Wa?\" 
 
 TilB HATTERAS EXPEDITION. 
 
 On the eighteenth of August he was relieved from tbo 
 command of the Department by Major-General Wool, and 
 on the twenty-first was pilaced in command of the volunteer 
 forces in the Department, exclusive of those at Fortress 
 Monroe, comprising the troops at Camps Butler and Ham- 
 ilton. One week later he left Fortress Monroe in com- 
 mand of the military portion of a combined army and navy 
 expedition destined to capture the forts at Hatteras Inlet, 
 North Carolina — an expedition he had arranged some two 
 months before his supersedure, and which he now desired 
 to carry out by acting as one of its commanders. The 
 success of the movement is a matter of history. On the 
 afternoon of the day after leaving Hampton Roads, the 
 last vessel of the fleet arrived off Hatteras Inlet. Imme- 
 diate preparations were made for the attack, and General 
 Butler from the deck of the Harriet Lane directed!! -the dis- 
 embarkation of the troops. After a short bombardment 
 Flag-officer Barron, of the rebel navy, offered to surrender 
 Fort Hatteras if the officers could retire with side-arms 
 and the men without arms. General Butler refused the 
 terms and said he would accept nothing but a full capitu- 
 lation — the officers and men to be treated as prisoners of 
 war ; and soon afterwards Captain Barron acceded to the 
 demand. General Butler then landed and took possession 
 4 
 
64 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 of the forts, with all the men and munitions of war. In 
 all, more than seven hundred men, twenty-five pieces of 
 artillery, a thousand stand of arms, four stand of colors, 
 and a large quantity of stores and supplies were captured. 
 At the time that he refused to accept Captain Barron's 
 terms his position was one of great danger. He says, in 
 his official report : 
 
 " I may mention in this connection that the Adelaide in car- 
 rying in the troops, at the moment that my terms of capitulation 
 were under consideration by the enemy, had grounded on the 
 bar, but by the active and judicious exertions of Commander 
 Stellwagen, after some delay was got off. 
 
 " At the same time, the Harriet Lane, in attempting to enter 
 the bar had grounded, and remained fast ; both were under the 
 guns of the fort. By these accidents, a valuable ship of war, 
 and a transport steamer, with a large portion of my troops, 
 were within the power of the enemy. I had demanded the 
 strongest terms, which he was considering. He might refuse, 
 and seeing our disadvantage, renew the action. But I deter- 
 mined to abate not a tittle of what I considered to be due to the 
 dignity of the government ; nor even to give an official title to 
 the officer in command of the rebels. Besides, my tug was in 
 the inlet, and, at least, I could carry on the engagement with 
 my two rifled six-pounders, well supplied with Sawyer's shell." 
 
 Although his orders were to sink vessels there and 
 abandon the place, he was so impressed with the impor- 
 tance of the position gained that he hastened to Wash- 
 ington to urge the Government to hold it. His return to 
 Hatteras was unnecessary, and, with troops, owing to the 
 exigencies of the service, impossible, and in the following 
 month ke received authority from the Secretary of War 
 " to raise, organize, arm, uniform, and equip a volunteer 
 force for the war, in the New England States, not exceed- 
 ing six regiments of the maximum standard, of such arms, 
 and in such proportions, and in such manner as he may 
 judge expedient." While engaged in recruiting this force 
 he became involved in an unfortunate quarrel with Gov- 
 ernor Andrew, who did not wish any new regiments or- 
 ganized until those already started were filled. 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENEEAL BUTLER. 65 
 
 THE DEPARTMEISTT OF T^EW EETGLAISTD— HIS 
 GULF EXPEDITION. 
 
 An order constituting the New England States a sep- 
 arate Military Department, with General Butler as its 
 commander, and an order from the Secretary of War 
 giving half a month's pay in advance to the troops en- 
 listed by General Butler, did not change the Governor's 
 sentiments, but the six thousand men were raised. The 
 delay, however, prevented him from using them for the 
 purpose he first contemplated — driving the rebels from 
 the Virginia peninsula — and he asked at Washington 
 where he should take them. The Gulf of Mexico was 
 named, and returning to New England, he made arrange- 
 ments for their departure, and on the 23d of November 
 the van of his expedition sailed for Ship Island under the 
 command of General Phelps. General Butler's quarrel 
 with the State government had, however, not been settled, 
 and on the seventh of January, 1862, he found himself 
 compelled to address a letter to the commander of one of 
 the regiments promising to pay to the family of each sol- 
 dier the sum which ought to be furnished by the town. 
 A few days later Secretary Stanton asked him why New 
 Orleans could not be taken. " It can," replied the brave 
 officer, and he promised, with fifteen thousand men and 
 with the co-operation of the navy, to capture the Crescent 
 city and its defences. In the meantime, General Phelps 
 had arrived at Ship Island, a low, narrow sand-spit in the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and had issued a proclamation to the \oyaX 
 citizens of the Southwest — a proclamation which was 
 neither authorized nor suggested by General Butler, and 
 which, from its peculiar anti-slavery tenets, occasioned 
 considerable comment North and South. On the 23d of 
 February, 1862, General Butler received orders assigning 
 him to the command of the land forces destined to co- 
 
66 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENEEAL BUTLER. 
 
 operate with the navy in the attack upon New Orleans, 
 and placing at his disposal a force of 15,255 men. The 
 Commanding General of the Department of the West was 
 authorized to loan him temporarily two regiments, and 
 Fort Pickens another. The order then continues : 
 
 * The object of your expedition is one of vital importance — 
 the capture oi' New Orleans. The route selected is up the Mis- 
 sissippi river, and the first obstacle to be encountered, perhaps 
 the only one, is in the resistance offered by Forts St. Philip and 
 Jackson. It is expected that the navy can reduce the works ; 
 in that case, you will, after their capture, leave a sufficient gar- 
 rison in them to render them perfectly secure ; and it is recom- 
 mended that on the upward passage a few heavy guns and some 
 troops be left at the pilot station, at the forks of the river, to 
 cover a retreat in the case of a disaster, the troops and guns 
 will of course be removed as soon as the forts are captured. 
 
 " Should the navy fail to reduce the works, you will land your 
 forces and siege-train, and endeavor to breach the works, silence 
 their fire, and carry them by assault 
 
 " The next re'sistance wall be near the English Bend, where 
 there are some earthen batteries ; here it may be necessary for 
 you to land your troops, to co-operate with the naval attack, 
 although it is more than probable that the navy, unassisted, can 
 accomplish the result. If these works are taken, the city of 
 New Orleans necessarily falls. 
 
 " In that event it will probably be best to occupy Algiers 
 with the mass of your troops, also tlie eastern bank of the river 
 ab'ove the city — it may be necessary to place some troops in the 
 city to preserve order ; though if there appears sufficient Union 
 sentiment to control the city, it maybe best for purposes of dis- 
 cipline to keep your men out of the city. 
 
 " After obtaining possession of New Orleans, it will be neces- 
 sary to reduce all the works guaiding its approaches from the 
 east, and particularly to gain the Manchac Pass. 
 
 " Baton llouge, Berwick Bay, and Fort Livingston will next 
 claim your attention. 
 
 " A feint on Galveston may facilitate the objects we have in 
 view. I need not call your attention to the necessity of gaining 
 possession of all the rolling-stock you can, on the difterent rail- 
 ways, and of obtaining control of the roads themselves. The 
 occupation of Baton Pvouge, by a combined naval and land 
 force, should be accomplished as soon as possible after you have 
 gained New Orleans; then endeavor to open your communica- 
 tion with the northern column of the Mississippi, always bear- 
 ing in mind the necessity of occupying Jackson, Mississippi, as 
 soon as you can safely do so, either after or before you have 
 effected the junction. Allow nothing to divert you from ob- 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENEKAL BUTLER. 67 
 
 taining- full jjossessiou of all the approaches to New Orleans. 
 When that object is accomplished to its fullest extent, it will 
 be necessary to make a combined attack on Mobile, in order to 
 gain possession of the harbor and works, as well as to control 
 the railway terminus at the city. In regard to this, I will send 
 more detailed instructions, as the operations of the northern 
 column develop themselves. I may simply state that the gen- 
 eral objects of the expedition are first, the reduction of New 
 Orleans and all its approaches, then Mobile, and all its defences, 
 then Pensacola, Galveston, etc. It is probable that by the time 
 New Orleans is reduced, it will be in the power of the govern- 
 ment to reinforce the land forces suflBciently to accomplish all 
 these objects ; in the meantime you will please give all the as- 
 sistance in your power to the army and navy commanders in 
 your vicinity, never losing sight of the fact that the great object 
 to be achieved is the capture and firm retention of New Orleans. 
 " Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 " George B. McClellan, 
 " Major- General Commandmg, etc., etc'' 
 
 THE CAPTUHE OF THE FOUTS BELOW NEW 
 ORLEANS. 
 
 On the 24th of February he left Fortress Monroe, and 
 on the 23d of the following month he arrived at Ship 
 Island. On the 15th of April he left the barren and in- 
 hospitable island with eight thousand troops for New 
 Orleans. Having arrived in the Mississippi, he, on the 
 morning of the 24th, after Farragut had succeeded in 
 getting by the forts, landed three thousand men, and hem- 
 ming in Forts St. Philip and Jackson, caused a mutiny to 
 prevail in the latter, and compelled it to surrender. The 
 other fort as well as those on Lake Pontchartrain followed, 
 and sending all the men he could transport, but two thou- 
 sand, up the river, he landed at New Orleans. Previous 
 to this, however, the Department of the Gulf, comprising 
 all the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, west of Pensacola 
 harbor, and so much of the Gulf States as might be occu- 
 pied by the forces under Major-General B. F. Butler, was 
 created, and the following staff was announced : 
 
 Major George C. Strong, A. A. General, Ordnance Officer 
 and Chief of Staff. 
 
68 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 Captain Jonas H. French, A. D. C. and Acting Inspector- 
 General. 
 
 Captain Peter Hac:g'erty, Aide-cle-Camp. 
 
 First Lieutenant W. H. Wiegel, A. D. C. 
 
 First Lieutenant J. W. Cusliing, Thirty-first Massachusetts 
 Volunteers, Acting Chief Quartermaster. 
 
 First Lieutenant J. E. Easterbrook, Thirtieth Massachusetts 
 Volunteers, Acting Chief Commissary. 
 
 Captain George A. Kensel, Chief of Artillery. 
 
 First Lieutenant Godfrey Wietzel, Chief Engineer. 
 
 First Lieutenant J. C. Palfrey, Assistant Engineer. 
 
 First Lieutenant C. N. Turnbull, Chief of Topographical 
 Engineers. 
 
 Surgeon Thomas H. Bache, Medical Director. 
 
 Major J. M. Bell, Volunteer Aide-de-Camp. 
 
 (Japtain R. S. Davis, Volunteer Aide-de-Camp. 
 
 First Lieutenant J. B. Kinsman, " 
 
 Second Lieutenant H. C. Clarke, " 
 
 The following report of General Butler gives all neces- 
 sary details of the capture of the forts : 
 
 " Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
 
 " Forts Jackson and St. Philip, April 2dth, 1862. 
 " Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War : 
 
 " Sir : I have the honor to report that, in obedience to my 
 instructions, I remained on the Mississippi river, with the troops 
 named in my former despatch, awaiting the action of the fleet 
 engas:ed in the bombardment of the Forts Jackson and St. 
 Philip. 
 
 " Failing to reduce them after six days of incessant fire, 
 Flag-Officer Farragut determined to attempt their passage wath 
 his whole fleet, except that part thereof under the immediate 
 command of Capt. Porter, known as the mortar-fleet. 
 
 " On the morning of the twenty-fourth instant, the fleet got 
 under w^eigh, and twelve vessels, including the four sloops-of- 
 war, ran the gauntlet of fire of the forts, and were safely above. 
 Of the gallantry, courage, and conduct of this heroic action, 
 unprecedented in naval warfare, considering the character of 
 the works and the river, too much cannot be said. Of its 
 casualties, and the details of its performance, the Flag-Ofificer 
 will give an account to the proper department. I witnessed 
 this daring exploit from a point about eight hundred yards 
 from Fort Jackson, and unwittingly under its fire, and the sub- 
 limity of the scene can never be exceeded. 
 
 "The fleet pressed on up the river to New Orleans, leaving 
 two gunboats to protect the Quarantine Station, five miles 
 above 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR- GENERAL BUTLER. 69 
 
 " In case the forts were not reduced and a portion of the 
 fleet got by them, it had been arranged between the Flag-Officer 
 and myself, that I should make a landing from the Gulf side, in 
 the rear of the forts at Quarantine, and from thence attempt 
 Fort St. Philip by storm and assault, while the bombardment 
 was continued by the fleet. 
 
 "I immediately went to Sable Island with my transports, 
 twelve miles in the rear of Fort St. Philip, the nearest point 
 at which a sufficient depth of water could be found for them. 
 Capt. Porter put at my disposal the Miami, drawing seven and 
 one-half feet, being the lightest draught vessel in the fleet, to 
 take the troops from the ship as far in as the water would al- 
 low. We were delayed twenty-four hours by her running ashore 
 ' at Pass a rOutre. The Twenty-sixth regiment Massachusetts 
 volunteers. Col. Jones, were then put on board her, and carried 
 within six miles of the fort, where she again grounded. 
 
 " Capt. Everett, of the Sixth Massachusetts battery, having 
 very fully reconnoitered the waters and bayous in .that vicinity, 
 and foreseeing the necessity, I had collected and brought with 
 me some thirty boats, into which the troops were again trans- 
 shipped, and conveyed by a most fatiguing and laborious row 
 some four and one-half miles further, there being within one 
 mile of the steamer, only two and one-half feet of water. 
 
 "A large portion of this passage was against a heavy current, 
 through a bayou. At the entrance of Mameel's Canal, a mile 
 and one-half from the point of landing, rowing became impos- 
 sible, as well from the narrowness of the canal as the strength 
 of the current, which ran like a mill-race. Through this the 
 boats could only be impelled by dragging them singly, with the 
 men up to their waists in water. 
 
 ''It is due to this fine regiment, and to a portion of the 
 Fourth Wisconsin volunteers and Twenty-first Indiana, who 
 landed under this hardship without a murmur, that their labors 
 should be made knovm to the Department, as well as to account 
 for the slowness of our operations. 
 
 "The enemy evidently considered this mode of attack impos- 
 sible, as they had taken no measures to oppose it, which might 
 very easily have been successfully done. 
 
 " We occupied at once both sides of the river, thus effectually 
 cutting them off" from all supplies, information, or succor, while 
 we made our dispositions for the assault. 
 
 " Meantime Capt. Porter had sent into the bayou, in the rear 
 of Fort Jackson, two schooners of his mortar-fleet, to prevent 
 the escape of the enemy from the fort in that direction. 
 
 "In the hurry and darkness of the passage of the forts, the 
 Flag-Officer had overlooked three of the enemy's gunboats and 
 the iron-clad battery Louisiana, which were at anchor under the 
 walls of the fort. Supposing that all the rebel boats had been 
 destroyed (and a dozen or more had been), he passed on to the 
 
70 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 city, leavino; these in his rear. The iron steam-battery being 
 very formidable, Capt. Porter deemed it prudent to withdraw 
 his mortar-fleet some miles below, where he could have room to 
 manceuvre it if attacked by the iron monster, and the bombard- 
 ment ceased. 
 
 " I had got Brigadier-General Phelps in the river below with 
 two regiments to" make demonstrations in that direction if it 
 became possible. 
 
 " In the night of the twenty-seventh, learning that the fleet 
 had got the city under its guns, I left Brigadier-General Wil- 
 liams in charge of the landing of the troops, and went up the 
 river to the flag-ship to procure light draught transportation. 
 That night the larger portion (about two hundred and fifty) 
 of the garrison of 'Fort Jackson mutinied, spiked the guns 
 bearing up the river, came up and surrendered themselves to 
 my pickets, declarinj»- that, as we had got in their rear, resistance 
 was useless, and they would not be sacrificed. No bomb had 
 been thrown at them for three days, nor had they fired a shot 
 at us from either fort. They averred that they had been im- 
 pressed, and would fight no longer. 
 
 " On the twenty-eighth, the ofiicers of Forts Jackson and St. 
 Philip surrenderred to Capt. Porter, he having means of water 
 transportation to them. While he was negotiating, however, 
 Avith the oSicers of the forts under a white flag, the rebel naval 
 officers put all their munitions of war on the Louisiana, set her 
 on fire and adrifc upon the Harriet Lane, but when opposite 
 Fort St. Philip she blew up, killing one of their own men by 
 the fragments which fell into that fort. 
 
 " I have taken possession of the forts and find them substan- 
 tially as defensible as before the bombardment — St. Philip pre- 
 cisely so, it being quite uninjured. They are fully provisioned, 
 well supplied with ammunition, and the ravages of the shells 
 have been defensibly repaired by the labors of the rebels. I 
 will cause Lieutenant Wietzel, of the engineers, to make a de- 
 tailed report of their condition to the Department. 
 
 " I have left the Twenty-sixth regiment Massachusetts volun- 
 teers in garrison, and am now going up the river to occupy the 
 city with my troops, and make further demonstrations in the 
 rear of the enemy now at Corinth. 
 
 "The rebels have abandoned all their defensive works in and 
 around New Orleans, including Forts Pike and Wood, on Lake 
 Pontchartrain, and Fort Livingston from Barataria Bay. They 
 have retired in the direction of Corinth, beyond Manchac Pass, 
 and abandoned every tiling up the river as far as Donaldsonville, 
 some seventy miles beyond New Orleans. 
 
 " I propose to so far depart from the letter of my instructions 
 as to endeavor to persuade the Flag-OSicer to pass up the river 
 as far as the mouth of Red river, if possible, so as to cut off 
 iheir supplies, and make there a landing and a demonstration 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 71 
 
 in their rear as a diversion in favor of General Buell, if a deci- 
 sive battle is not fought before such movement is possible. 
 
 " Mobile is ours whenever we choose, and we can better wait. 
 
 " I find the city under the dominion of the mob. They have 
 insulted our flag — torn it down with indignity. This outrage 
 will be punished in such manner as in my judgment will caution 
 both the perpetrators and abettors of the act, so that they 
 shall fear the stripes if they do not reverence the stars of our 
 banner. 
 
 " I send a marked copy of a New Orleans paper containing 
 an applauding account of the outrage. 
 
 "Trusting my action may meet the approbation of the De- 
 partment, 
 
 " I am, most respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 " Bknjamin F. Butlkr, 
 *' Major-General Commanding.'' 
 
 THE OCCUPATIO]Sr OF NEW ORLEANS— MUM- 
 FOKD'S THSASON. 
 
 Captain Farragut, upon arriving off New Orleans, sent 
 two of his officers ashore with a communication to the 
 Mayor demanding the surrender of the city and the eleva- 
 tion of the flag of the Union over the Custom-House, the 
 Mint, the Post-Office, and the City Hall. The Mayor 
 stated that he had no authority in the matter, and would 
 refer it to the Military Commander, General Lovell, who 
 shortly afterwards declined to accede to the demand, but 
 remarked that if General Butler saw proper to shell the 
 city, he could do so. Subsequently the demand was repeated, 
 and on the morning of the twenty-seventh of April the 
 Stars and Stripes were hoisted over the Mint, but a few 
 hours later the emblem of freedom was torn from the staff 
 by a band of rebels led by W. B. Mumford, and amid the 
 yells of the mob dragged through the muddy streets and 
 then torn into shreds and distributed among the infuriated 
 populace. The insult was witnessed by our naval heroes, 
 but the presence of thousands of women and children 
 prevented the guns of the vessels from being discharged 
 upon the city. A few hours afterwards General Butler 
 
72 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 arrived and advised that the women and children should 
 be ordered away and the town threatened, a suggestion 
 which induced Captain Farragut to notify the Mayor that 
 if the dastardlj^ scene was to be renewed, to remove the 
 helpless residents within forty-eight hours. On the twen- 
 ty-ninth a hundred marines landed on the levee and hoisted 
 the American flag on the public buildings. 
 
 On the first of May General Butler issued an order in 
 anticipation of his landing, forbidding the plundering of 
 private or public property, and the absence of any officer 
 or soldier from his position, without arms or alone ; and 
 the same afternoon, with a small portion of the command, 
 disembarked, and to the soul-stirring tune of the " Star- 
 Spangled Banner," moved through the principal streets to 
 the Custom-House, followed by a mob of excited men, who 
 along the entird route applied the vilest epithets to the 
 fearless commander and his heroic, patient troops. 
 
 HIS PBOCLAMATION TO THE PEOPLE. 
 
 The next morning two of his staff-officers visited the 
 office of the True Delta and requested its proprietor to 
 print a proclamation which the General had addressed to 
 the people of New Orleans, but the request was refused, 
 and in two hours a file of soldiers were in possession of 
 the establishment, and a sufficient number of printers 
 selected from the ranks at work setting up the copy of the 
 important document. Not satisfied with the refusal, the 
 editor on the next day in an editorial article stated his 
 determination to stand or fall with the fortunes of the State, 
 and pledged himself to suspend the publication of his paper, 
 ev^en if his last crust should be sacrificed, rather ''than 
 molt one feather of that independence which, in presence 
 of every discouragement and danger, we have ever made 
 our honest boast." The paper was immediately suspended 
 by General Butler, but on the next day the proprietor was 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 73 
 
 permitted to resume its issue on the promise to obey the 
 General's orders. 
 
 The Proclamation was as follows : 
 
 ** Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
 " New Orleans, May \&t, 1862. 
 
 " The city of New Orleans and its environs, with all its in- 
 terior and exterior defences, having surrendered to the combined 
 naval and land forces of the United States, and being now in 
 the occupation of the forces of the United vStates, who have 
 come to restore order, maintain public tranquillity, and enforce 
 peace and quiet, under the laws and constitution of the United 
 States, the major-general commanding hereby proclaims the 
 object and purposes of the government of the United States in 
 thus taking possession of New Orleans and the State of Louis- 
 iana, and the rules and regulations by which the laws of the 
 United States will be for the present, and during the state of 
 war, enforced and maintained, for the plain guidance of all good 
 citizens of the United States, as well as others who may have 
 heretofore been in rebellion against their authority. 
 
 '' Thrice before has the city of New Orleans been .rescued from 
 the hands of a foreign government, and still more calamitous 
 domestic insurrection, by the money and arms of the United 
 States. It has of late been under the military control of the 
 rebel forces, and at each time, in the judgment of the com- 
 manders of the military forces holding it, it has been found ne- 
 cessary to preserve order and maintain quiet by an administration 
 of martial law. Even during the interim from its evacuation by 
 the rebel soldiers, and its actual possession by the soldiers of 
 the United States, the civil authorities have found it necessary 
 to call for the intervention of an armed body known as the 
 European Legion, to preserve the public tranquillity. The 
 commanding general, therefore, will cause the city to be guarded, 
 until the restoration of the United States authority, and his 
 further orders, by martial law. 
 
 ** All persons in arms against the United States are required 
 to surrender themselves, with their arms, equipments, and mu- 
 nitions of war. The body known as the European Legion, not 
 being understood to be in arms against the United States, but 
 organized to protect the lives and property of the citizens, are 
 invited to still co-operate with the forces of the United States 
 to that end, and, so acting, will not be included in the terms of 
 this order, but will report to these head-quarters. 
 
 " All ensigns, flags, devices, tending to uphold any authority 
 whatever, save the flags of the United States and those of foreign 
 consulates, must not be exhibited, but suppressed. 'J'be Ameri- 
 can ensign, the emblem of the United States, must be treated 
 
74 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 with the utmost deference and respect by all persons, under pain 
 of severe punishment. 
 
 " All persons well disposed towards the g-overnmcnt of the 
 United States, who shall renew^ the oath of allegiance, will re- 
 ceive a safeguard of protection to their persons and property 
 from the army of the United States, and the violation of such 
 safeguard will be punishable with death. All persons still hold- 
 ing allegiance to the Confederate States, will be deemed rebels 
 against the government of the United States, and regarded and 
 treated as enemies thereof. All foreigners, not naturalized, and 
 claiming allegiance to their respective governments, and not 
 having made oath of allegiance to the government of the Con- 
 federate States, will be protected in their persons and property, 
 as heretofore, under the laws of the United States. All persons 
 who may have heretofore given adherence to the supposed 
 government of the Confederate States, or been in their service, 
 who shall lay down or deliver up their arms, return to peaceful 
 occupations, and preserve quiet and order, holding no farther 
 correspondence, nor giving aid and comfort to enemies of the 
 United States, will not be disturbed in their persons or property, 
 except so far under the orders of the commanding general as 
 the exigencies of the public service may render necessary. 
 
 "Keepers of all public property, whether State, national, or 
 confederate, such as collections of art, libraries, and museums, 
 as well as all public buildings, all munitions of war and armed 
 vessels, will at once make full returns thereof to these head- 
 quarters. All manufacturers of arms and munitions of war will 
 report to these head-quarters their kind and places of business. 
 All the rights of property, of whatever kind, will be held invio- 
 late, subject only to the laws of the United States. All the in- 
 habitants are enjoined to pursue their usual avocations. All 
 shops and places of amusement are to be kept open in the ac- 
 customed manner, and services are to be held in the churches 
 and religious houses, as in times of profound peace. 
 
 *' Keepers of all public houses and drinking-saloons are to 
 report their names and numbers to the office of the provost- 
 marshal, and they will then receive a license, and be held 
 responsible for all disorders and disturbances arising in their 
 respective places. 
 
 " Sufficient force will be kept in the city to preserve order and 
 maintain the laws. The killing of American soldiers by any 
 disorderly person or mob, is simply assassination and murder, 
 and not war, and will be so regarded and punished. The owner 
 of any house in which such murder shall be committed, will be 
 held responsible therefor, and the house be liable to be destroyed 
 by the military authority. All disorders, disturbances of the 
 peace, and crimes of an aggravated nature, interfering with the 
 forces or laws of the United States, will be referred to a military 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 75 
 
 court for trial and punishment. Other misdemeanors will be 
 subject to the municipal authority, if it desires to act. 
 
 " Civil causes between party and party will be referred to the 
 ordinary tribunals. 
 
 " The levy and collection of taxes, save those imposed by the 
 laws of the United States, are suppressed, except those for keep- 
 ing in repair and lighting the streets, and for sanitary purposes. 
 These are to be collected in the usual manner. 
 
 " The circulation of Confederate bonds, evidences of debt (ex- 
 cept notes in the similitude of bank-notes) issued by the Con- 
 federate States, or scrip, or any trade in the same, is forbidden. 
 It has been represented to the commanding general by the civil 
 authorities that these Confederate notes, in the form of bank- 
 notes, in a great measure, are the only substitutes for money 
 which the people have been allowed to have, and that great dis- 
 tress would ensue among the poorer classes if the circulation of 
 such notes should be suppressed. Such circulation, therefore, 
 will be permitted so long as any one will be inconsiderate enough 
 to receive them, until further orders. 
 
 " No publication of newspapers, pamphlets, or hand-bills, giv- 
 ing accounts of the movements of the soldiers of the United 
 States, within this department, reflecting in any way upon the 
 United States, intended in any way to influence the public mind 
 against the United States, will be permitted, and all articles on 
 war news, editorial comments, or correspondence making com- 
 ments upon the movements of the armies of the United States, 
 must be submitted to the examination of an officer, who will be 
 detailed for that purpose from these head-quarters. The trans- 
 mission of all communications by telegraph will be under the 
 charge of an officer detailed from these head-quarters. 
 
 "The armies of the United States came here not to destroy, 
 but to restore order out of chaos, to uphold the government and 
 the laws in the place of the ' passage' of men. To this end, there- 
 fore, the efforts of all well disposed are invited, to have every 
 species of disorder quelled. 
 
 " If any soldier of the United States should so far forget his 
 duty or his flag as to commit outrage upon any person or prop- 
 erty, the commanding general requests his name to be instantly 
 reported to the provost guard, so that he may be punished and 
 his wrongful act redressed. The municipal authority, so far as 
 the police of the city and environs are concerned, is to extend 
 as before indicated, until suspended. 
 
 "All assemblages of persons in the streets, either by day or 
 night, tend to disaster, and are forbidden. The various com- 
 panies composing the Fire Department of New Orleans will be 
 permitted to retain their organiziitions, and are to report to the 
 provost-marshal, so that they may be known, and not interfered 
 with in their duties. 
 
 "And, finally, it may be sufficient to add, without further 
 
76 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 enumeration, that all tlie requirements of martial law will be 
 imposed so long as, in the judgment of the United States 
 authorities, it may be necessary ; and while it is desired by 
 these authorities to exercise this government mildly, and after 
 the usages of the past, it must not be supposed that it will not 
 be rigorously and firmly administered as the occasion calls 
 for it. By command of 
 
 " Major-General Butler. 
 " Geo. B. Strong, A. A. G., Chief of Staff." 
 
 GENERAL BUTLER'S INTERVIEW WITH THE 
 MAYOR. 
 
 The St. Charles Hotel was taken as the head-quarters 
 of General Butler, and immediately afterwards a party of 
 officers, one of them the lamented Strong, then Chief of 
 the General's staff, waited on the Mayor and informed him 
 that the Commander of the Department of the Gulf would 
 be happy to confer with the Mayor and Council of New 
 Orleans at the St. Charles Hotel at two o'clock p.m. The 
 Mayor at first declined to accept the invitation, but subse- 
 quently signified his intention to call, and at the hour 
 designated, accompanied by Pierre Soule and others, he 
 waited upon the General. In the meantime the populace, 
 recovering from their alarm, had rushed en masse to the 
 St. Charles, and fears were entertained that violence would 
 be attempted. An aide-de-camp entered the head-quarters 
 and reported that General Williams had fears he would be 
 unable to control the infuriated people. General Butler, 
 without evincing the slightest alarm, requested the aid to 
 tell General Williams if he found he could not control the 
 mob, to open upon them with artillery, an order which 
 caused the Mayor to spring to his feet and request that 
 that alternative might not be adopted. He also offered to 
 go out and speak to the people, and in a few moments his 
 arguments proved to his auditors the dangerous step they 
 were taking. 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENEKAL BUTLER. 77 
 
 AN ACT OP HEROISM. 
 
 The conference was tlien resumed, bot was soon again 
 interrupted by the entrance of Lieut. Kinsman of the staff. 
 He had just reached the hotel with Judge Summers, 
 Ex-Recorder, who had sought refuge on board the Missis- 
 sippi, and who on the way from the levee had been threat- 
 ened with death by the populace. JN'ot satisfied with the 
 security of the hotel, General Butler instructed the Judge 
 to go to the Custom-House for protection, and ordering 
 the Lieutenant to take what force he required, directed 
 him to take him thither, and if any molestation was expe- 
 rienced to arrest the parties, and if a rescue was attempted 
 to fire. Of what followed we obtain the following details 
 from the interesting work, " General Butler in New Or- 
 leans," lately written by James Parton, Esq., and published 
 by Mason Brothers of New York — a w^ork that everybody 
 should get and read. 
 
 " Lieutenant Kinsman proceeded to obey the order. He con- 
 ducted Mr. Summers to a side door, which he opened, and 
 disclosed to the view of his charge a compact mass of infuriated 
 men, held at bay by a company of fifty soldiers. 
 
 " * Don't attempt it,' said the judge, recoiling from the sight. 
 
 '" 1 must,' returned the lieutenant. 'The general's orders 
 were positive. 1 have no choice but to obey-' 
 
 " The company of soldiers were soon drawn up in two lines, 
 four feet apart, two men closing the front and two the rear of 
 the column. In the open space were Lieutenant Kinsman and 
 Mr. Summers. 
 
 " ' Forward, march !' The column started. The crowd recog- 
 nizing the giant judge, yelled and boiled around the slowly 
 pushing column. The active men of the mob were not those 
 within reach of the soldiers. The nearest men prudently held 
 their peace and watched their chance. Consequently, no arrests 
 were made until the column had gone half-way to the Custom- 
 House. At that point stood an omnibus with one man in it, 
 who was urging on the mob, by voice and gesture, with the 
 violence of frenzy. 
 
 " ' Halt ! Bring out that man !' 
 
 " Two soldiers sprang into the omnibus, collared the lunatic, 
 drew him out, and placed him between the lines, where 
 
78 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 he continued to yell and gesticulate in the most frantic 
 manner. 
 
 " ' Stop your noise !' thundered the lieutenant. 
 
 "' I won't,' said the man ; * my tongue is my own.' 
 
 " ' Sergeant , lower your bayonet. If a sound comes 
 
 out of that man's mouth, run him through !' 
 
 " The man was silent. 
 
 " ' Forward — march 1' The column pushed on again, but very 
 slowly. After going some distance, the lieutenant perceived that 
 one man, who had been particularly vociferous, was within clutch- 
 ing distance. 
 
 " ' Halt — bring in that man,' pointing him out. 
 
 "The man was seized and placed in the column. He con- 
 tinued to shout, but a lowered bayonet brought him to his senses 
 also. The column pushed on again, and lodged the judge and 
 the two prisoners safely in the impregnable Custom-House, the 
 citadel of New Orleans. The company marched back, in the 
 same order, through a crowd ' as silent as a funeral,' to use the 
 lieutenant's own language. 
 
 "This scene was witnessed from the windows of the St. 
 Charles by General Butler and his staff, and by the mayor and 
 his friends, the "conference being suspended by common con- 
 sent." 
 
 During the day the General received a number of letters, 
 many of them threatening, and all, with but few excep- 
 tions, abusive. "Picayune Butler," ''Old Cock-Eye," 
 *' Yankee Fiend," and other epithets were applied by 
 anonymous correspondents, much to the amusement of the 
 person to whom they were addressed. Notwithstanding 
 the numerous threats of murder by shooting and poison, 
 General Butler that night escorted his heroic wife, who, by 
 the way, rarely failed to accompany him on his patriotic 
 but dangerous missions, from the steamer to his quarters. 
 
 THE RESPOlSrSIBILITIES AND DUTIES OF HIS 
 POSITION. 
 
 General Butler's position was one of vast responsibility 
 and labor accompanied by great danger, but he had con- 
 sidered well the cares, vexations and risks before he 
 accepted the trust. For two weeks he remained in New 
 Orleans with two thousand men, only two hundred and 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 79 
 
 fifty of whom were in the citj proper, subject to in- 
 stant call, but by marching this small number backwards 
 and forwards through the streets, he induced the traitors 
 to believe that a much larger force was in their midst. 
 Deadly as the hatred was, however, for the Union soldiers, 
 no molestation except by insolent remarks and grimaces 
 was attempted. General Butler had announced his deter- 
 mination to suppress the unruly element to a degree 
 which would enable him to ride at will without being 
 insulted, or to make a desert of the metropolis, and feeling 
 that he had the power to carry out his pledges, they obeyed 
 his wishes. 
 
 Soon after establishing his head-quarters, he was visited 
 by the foreign consuls, whom he satisfied that he desired 
 to leave all officials, municipal and foreign, to the uninter- 
 rupted discharge of the duties of their respective offices, 
 and as an evidence of the truthfulness of the remark, he 
 permitted the Mayor and Councils to retain their power 
 in all save military matters. 
 
 General Butler early directed his attention to the suJEfer- 
 ing of the people from the scarcity of food, many thou- 
 sands of the citizens actually being on the border of 
 starvation, and although harassed by a thousand cares, he 
 devised plans of relief which were eminently successi^ul. 
 He gave permission for the transportation of a large 
 amount of supplies from Mobile and from points on the 
 Mississippi above New Orleans, the faith of the city being 
 pledged for the honorable fulfilment of the charitable work ; 
 he gave from his own private purse one thousand dollars ; 
 he shut up a free market which had been opened for the 
 purpose of supplying only the families of Rebd soldiers, 
 and took charge of the distribution himself; and subse- 
 quently organized a relief association and levied an assess- 
 ment of nearly three hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
 on the secessionists who had subscribed to the Rebel 
 5 
 
80 LIFE OF MAJOK-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 defence fund, and the cotton brokers who had advised 
 the planters not to bring their staple to market. At one 
 time he was feeding about ten thousand families, or about 
 thirty -four thousand persons, each day, and not more than 
 twelve hundred of the families were Americans. 
 
 The filthy condition of the city, which had not been 
 touched by the brush of the street-cleaner for several 
 months, and the approach of the warm term — a season 
 which the traitors were anxiously awaiting, believing 
 that with it would come destruction to the unacclimated 
 troops — warned General Butler of the importance of sani- 
 tary regulations ; and in a few days one thousand men 
 were at work cleansing the thoroughfares, large and small, 
 building levees, and placing the city generally in order. 
 Ten or eleven miles of canals, by which the city is drained, 
 and some of Which had not been touched for fifteen years, 
 were cleaned ; and a strict quarantine was established. 
 The result was that the expectations and prayers of the 
 traitors were disappointed, and the city was not visited 
 that summer by the yellow fever. 
 
 Notwithstanding the large outlay of money required to 
 accomplish all these improvements, and to feed so many 
 thousands of hungry people, General Butler managed by 
 his levies upon the bankers, merchants and brokers, who 
 had been liberal in their contributions to the Southern 
 cause, to obtain a sufficient sum to pay all the expenses, 
 and . to make him, as Mr. Chase termed him, '' the 
 cheapest General employed in the service." 
 
 HIS TROUBLE WITH THE COK-SULS. 
 
 In superintending the financial affairs of the city, 
 General Butler ascertained that some time previous to his 
 landing, a large number of kegs of silver had been taken 
 from the Citizens' Bank, to the office of the Consul of the 
 Netherlands, and suspecting that the coin had been 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR- GENERAL BUTLER. 81 
 
 secreted for the purpose of defrauding the creditors of the 
 bank, or that it was a part of the finances of the rebel 
 government, sent a guard to recover it. M. Conturie pro- 
 tested against the act, and solemnly declared there was 
 nothing in the building that did not belong to the Con- 
 sulate or himself, but refused to allow a search to be 
 made. Lieut. Kinsman was sent to the office and de- 
 manded the key of the vault, but finding that the Consul 
 was persistent in his refusal, ordered the guard to search 
 him, which was done, and the key being found, the door 
 of the vault was opened, and there were discovered, 
 notwithstanding the assertions of the functionary to the 
 contrary, one hundred and sixty kegs, each containing five 
 thousand Mexican dollars. Dies and bank plates of the 
 Citizens' Bank, and plates and paper of the Confederate 
 Treasury notes, were also found. The Consul was 
 released and the coin was removed to the Mint. During 
 the interview preceding the discovery, M. Conturie be- 
 came much exasperated at some rather severe, but under 
 the circumstances perfectly proper remarks, made by 
 Lieut. Kinsman, and addressed a statement of the facts to 
 General Butler, which elicited the following reply ; 
 
 "Your communication of the 10th instant is received. The 
 nature of the property found concealed beneath your consular 
 flag — the specie, dies, and plates of the Citizens' Bank of New 
 Orleans — under a claim that it was private property, which claim 
 is now admitted to be groundless, shows you have merited, so 
 far as I can judge, the treatment you have received, even if a 
 little rough. Having prostituted your flag to a base purpose, 
 you could not hope to have it respected so debased." 
 
 On the twelfth of May, every Consul in New Orleans, 
 except the Mexican, sent to the General the following 
 
 protest : 
 
 " New Orleans, May 12th, 1862. 
 " Major General B. F. Butler, United States Army, 
 
 ^'Commanding Department of the Gulf: 
 " General : It having come to the knowledge of the undersigned 
 that the Consulate of his Majesty, the King of Netherlands, ia 
 
82 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 this city, had been forcibly entered by your orders by some 
 persons in the uniforms of soldiers in the service of the United 
 States Grovernment, the person of the consul subjected to in- 
 dignity and severe ill-usage, and kept prisoner for several hours, 
 it becomes the duty of the undersigned, in view of treaties now 
 existing between the governments which we represent and that 
 of the United States, to formally protest against such action, 
 and against any act authorized by you or any authority of the 
 United States that may be in contravention of such treaties. 
 We have the honor to be, General, your most obedient 
 servants." 
 
 On the same day, General Butler returned the following 
 answer : 
 
 " Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
 " New Orleans, May V2tli, 1862. 
 
 " Messrs : I have the protest which you have thought it proper 
 to make in regard to the action of my officers toward the consul 
 of the Netherlands, which action I approve and sustain. I am 
 grieved that, without investigation of the facts, you, Messrs., 
 should have thought it your duty to take action in the matter. 
 The fact will appear to be, and easily to be demonstrated at the 
 proper time, that the flag of the Netherlands was made to cover 
 and conceal property of an incorporated company of Louisiana, 
 secreted under it from the operation of the laws of the United 
 States. That the supposed fact that the consul had under the 
 flag only the property of Hope & Co., citizens of the Nether- 
 lands, is untrue. He had other property which could not by 
 law be his property, or the property of Hope & Co. ; of this I 
 have abundant proof in my own hands. No person can excel 
 me in the respect which I shall pay to the flags of all nations, 
 and to the consulate authority, even while I do not recognize 
 many claims made under them ; but I wish it most distinctly 
 understood that, in order to be respected, the consul, his office, 
 and the use of his flag, must each and all be respectable. I have 
 the honor to be very respectfully your obedient servant, 
 
 " Benjamin F. Butler, 
 ^' Major- General Commanding.''^ 
 
 On the following day the Associated Banks requested 
 permission to restore their specie to their vaults, a privi- 
 lege which he acceded, on condition that the specie should 
 be used in good faith to make good the obligations of the 
 banks to their creditors by bills and deposits, the time of 
 redemption to be left to the good judgment of the banks. 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 83 
 
 General Butler also, on the thirteenth of May, prohibited 
 the citizens from observing a day which had been set 
 apart by Jefferson Davis for fasting and prayer. 
 
 THE CELEBRATED WOMAN ORDEH. 
 
 On the fifteenth of May, 1862, General Butler issued 
 the celebrated order No. 28, which read as follows : 
 
 "Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
 "New Orleans, May 15th, 1862. 
 '< General Order No. 28 : 
 
 "As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been 
 subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves 
 ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scrupulous non- 
 interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter 
 when any female shall, by word, gesture, or movement, insult or 
 show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, 
 she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman 
 of the town plying her avocation. 
 
 "Bv command of " Major-General Butler. 
 
 " Geo.^C. Strong, A. A. G., Chief of Staffs 
 
 When he penned the order, the act w^as dictated solely 
 with a view of suppressing, then and forever, a disagreea- 
 ble nuisance which had existed in New Orleans since its 
 occupation. The females of the city, not only the poor 
 and ignorant, but more especially those who, from birth, 
 education, and position, should have better understood the 
 rules of politeness, had, from the moment the troops 
 landed, embraced every opportunity to insult them. 
 Ilebel flags and badges were displayed upon their persons; 
 treasonable songs were sung within the hearing of the 
 military ; upturned noses and contemptuous sneers marked 
 tlie features of every passing beauty ; young girls, mere 
 children, in their promenades, evinced as much effrontery 
 and boldness as their mothers ; church-pows and car-seats 
 were vacated upon the entrance of Union heroes, and 
 one degraded representative of Southern aristocracy 
 actually spat in the faces of two of our officers as she 
 
84 LIFE OF MAJOH-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 passedxthem on the street. The unfortunate objects of 
 this indignation and spleen at first were patient sufferers, 
 but finally forbearance became impossible. To arrest 
 them would have instantly created a popular disturbance, 
 which could but have led to sanguinar}^ scenes. General 
 Butler therefore wrote the celebrated order which, 
 although it accomplished all that was intended, brought 
 down upon its author the curses of the rebels and their 
 sympathizing friends in the North and foreign lands. 
 " Beast Butler" became the title of the distinguished com- 
 mander ; Beauregard ordered the document read on dress- 
 parade for the information of the army, and also thus 
 addressed his followers : " Men of the South, shall our 
 mothers, waives, daughters and sisters, be thus outraged 
 by the ruffianly soldiers of the North, to whom is given 
 the right to treat at their pleasure the ladies of the South 
 as common harlots ? Arouse, friends, and drive back from 
 our soil these infamous invaders of our homes, and dis- 
 turbers of our family ties;" and a stirring appeal, pur- 
 porting to have been written by " The Daughters of New 
 Orleans," calling upon the Southern soldiers to avenge 
 their wrongs, and imploring them not to surrender their 
 cities to the " mercy of this merciless foe," was exten- 
 sively circulated by the Southern press. The Governor 
 of Louisiana issued an address to the people, in which he 
 thus refers to the order : 
 
 " History records instances of cities sacked, and inlunnan 
 atrocities committed upon the women of a conquered town, but 
 in no instance, in modern times, at least, without the brutal rav- 
 ishers suifering condign punishment from the hands of their own 
 commanders. It "was reserved for a Federal general to invite his 
 soldiers to the perpetration of outrages, at the mention of which 
 the blood recoils in horror — to quicken the impulse of their sen- 
 sual instincts by the suggestion of transparent excuses for their 
 gratification, and to add to an infamy already well merited these 
 crowning titles of a panderer to lust and a desecrator of virtue. 
 
 '' Organize, then, quickly and efficiently. If your enemy at- 
 tempt to proceed into the interior, let his pathway be marked by 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 85 
 
 his blood. It is your homes that you have to defend. It is the 
 jewel of your hearths, the chastity of your women, you have to 
 guard. Let that thought animate your breasts, nerve your arms, 
 quicken your energies" and inspire your resohition. Strike home 
 to tlie heart of your foe the blow that rids your country of his 
 presence. If needs be, let his blood moisten your own grave. 
 It will rise up before your children as a perpetual memento of a 
 race whom it will teach to hate now and evermore." 
 
 A chivalrous Mississippian offered ten thousand dol- 
 lars for General Butler's head ; a woman of Savannah 
 suggested the propriety of every representative of her sex 
 in the South contributing her mite to increase the sum ; 
 the columns of the newspapers in rebeldom teemed with 
 effusions, prose and poetry. Across the water the friends 
 of the traitors were loud in their denunciations, and even 
 Lord Palmerston said in a public speech that no man could 
 read the order without a feeling of the deepest indignation, 
 and every Englishman must blush to think one of the 
 Anglo-Saxon race committed the act. In Punch was the 
 following stanza : 
 
 " Haynau's lash tore woman's back, 
 When she riz his dander, 
 Butler, by his edict black. 
 
 Stumps that famed commander. 
 Wreaking upon maid and dame 
 
 Savagery subtler : 
 None but Nena Sahib name 
 Along with General Butler. 
 Yankee doodle, doodle doo, 
 
 Yankee doodle dandy ; 
 Butler is a rare Yahoo, 
 
 As brave as Sepoy Bandy." 
 
 General Butler, however, w^as not to be affected by this 
 abuse, and announced that under the same circumstances 
 he would issue the order again. The correspondence be- 
 tween the General and the Mayor of New Orleans on the 
 subject led to the removal of the latter from office and his 
 subsequent incarceration. On the morning that the order 
 was promulgated he addressed the following letter : 
 
86 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENEKAL BUTLER. 
 
 " State of Louisiana, Mayoralty of Nev7 Orleans, 
 
 ''MaylUh, 1862. 
 ** Major-General B. F. Butler, Commanding U. S. Forces. 
 
 '. SiK : — Your General Order, No. 28, of date 15th inst., 
 ■which reads as follows, is of a character so extraordinary and 
 astonishing that I can not, holding the office of chief magis- 
 trate of this city, chargeable with its peace and dignity, suffer 
 it to be promulgated in our presence without protesting against 
 the threat it contains, which has already aroused the passions 
 of our people, and must exasperate them to a degree beyond 
 control. Your officers and soldiers are permitted, by the terms 
 of this order, to place any construction they may please upon 
 tlie conduct of our wives and daughters, and, upon such con- 
 struction, to offer them atrocious insults. The peace of the city 
 and the safety of your officers and soldiers from harm or insult 
 have, I affirm, been successfully secured to an extent enabling 
 them to move through our streets almost unnoticed, according 
 to the understanding and agreement entered into between your- 
 self and the city authorities. I did not, however, anticipate a 
 war upon women and children, who, so far as I am aware, have 
 only manifested their displeasure at the occupation of their city 
 by those whom they believe to be their enemies, and I will never 
 undertake to be responsible for the peace of New Orleans while 
 such an edict, which infuriates our citizens, remains in force. To 
 give a license to the officers and soldiers of your command to 
 commit outrages, such as are indicated in your order, upon de- 
 fenceless women is, in my judgment, a reproach to the civiliza- 
 tion, not to say to the Christianity, of the age, in whose name I 
 make this protest. I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 "John T. Monroe, Mayor.'' 
 
 General Butler immediately suspended the Mayor from 
 ofhce and ordered him to be committed to Fort Jackson, 
 but subsequently, having had the obnoxious order satis- 
 fatorily explained to him, the city official apologized and 
 was relieved from arrest. In the evening, however, he 
 sent the following note : 
 
 " Mayoralty of New Orleans, 
 " City Hall, 3Iay I6th, 1862. 
 " Major-General Butler : 
 
 a giR : — Having misunderstood you yesterday in relation to 
 your General Order No. 28, I wish to withdraw the indorsement 
 I made on the letter addressed to you yesterday. Please de- 
 liver the lett-er to my secretary, Mr. Duncan, who*Avill hand you 
 this note. Your obedient servant, " John T. Monroe." 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 87 
 
 General Butler instantly replied as follows : 
 
 " Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
 " New Orleans, Mmj 16th, 1862. 
 
 * Sir : — There can be, there has been, no room for the misun- 
 derstiuiding of General Order No. 28. 
 
 "No lady will take any notice of a strange gentleman, and a 
 fortiori of a stranger, in knch form as to attract attention. 
 Common women do. 
 
 " Therefore, whatever woman, lady or mistress, gentle or sim- 
 ple, who, by gesture, look or word, insults, shows contempt for, 
 thus attracting to herself the notice of my officers and soldiers, 
 will be deemed to act as becomes her vocation of common 
 woman, and will be liable to be treated accordingly. This was 
 most fully explained to you at my office. 
 
 " I shall not, as I have not, abated a single word of that order ; 
 it was well considered. If obeyed it will protect the true and 
 modest woman from all possible insult. The others will take 
 care of themselves. 
 
 " You can publish your letter, if you publish this note, and 
 your apology. Eespectfully, " Benjamin F. Butler, 
 
 " Major-General Commcmdmg, 
 " John T. Monroe, Mayor of New Orleans.'' 
 
 To this the Mayor replied by sending to the General 
 a copy of his first letter. General Butler summoned him 
 again to head-quarters. In the presence of the General 
 he declared that he did not wish to send the letter if he 
 could publish what the General had said to him, that 
 Order No. 28 did not refer to all the ladies of New 
 Orleans. The General, to prevent all possibihty of mis- 
 understanding, wrote at the bottom of a copy of the 
 order : 
 
 "You may say that this order refers to those women only who 
 have shown contempt for and insulted my soldiers, by words, 
 gestures, and movements, in their presence. " B. F. Butler." 
 
 The next morning, however, he again changed his sen- 
 timents, and on the following Monday he was sent, with 
 other officials (one or more of whom, including the Mayor, 
 believed to be implicated in a conspiracy among the pa- 
 roled rebel prisoners in the city), to Fort Jackson, and the 
 
88 LIFE OF MAJOE-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 functions of his office were discharged by General Shep- 
 ley, the Military Commandant. 
 
 THE HAKGIlSra OF MUMFORD. 
 On the seventh of June, 1862, another event oc^^w^cd 
 in the Crescent City which caused much comment, and in- 
 creased the hatred of the traitors for General Butler. 
 Mumford — he who, on the day of the capture had dared 
 to tear from its staff the flag of the Union, thus not only 
 desecrating that glorious emblem, but also from the act 
 endangering the lives of the citizens who were at the mercy 
 of the guns of our vessels on that day — paid the penalty 
 of his crime. He had been tried by a military commission 
 and ordered to be executed, and on the fifth of the month 
 General Butler issued the following special order : 
 
 *'New Orleans, June Uh, 1862. 
 
 *' "William B. Mumford, a citizen of New Orleans, having been 
 convicted before the military commission of treason and an 
 overt act thereof, in tearing down the United States flag from a 
 public building of the United States, for the purpose ofinciting 
 other evil-minded persons to further resistance to the laws and 
 arms of the United States, after said flag was placed there by 
 Commodore Farragut, of the United States Navy. 
 
 " It is ordered that he be executed, according to the sentence 
 of the said military commission, on Saturday, June 7th instant, 
 between the hours of 8 a.m. and 12 m., under the direction of the 
 provost-marshal of the district of New Orleans ; and for so 
 doing, this shall be his sufficient warrant." 
 
 He expressed no repentance, and his friends pledged 
 themselves to murder the Commander if he was executed. 
 General Butler had never been intimidated by threats. 
 The scaffold was erected at the Mint, and an immense 
 throng of persons was present when the prisoner walked 
 out on the scaffold. The order of execution was read, 
 and at thirteen minutes before eleven, a. m., he swung in 
 mid-air. The large assemblage quietly dispersed, and 
 the threats of the ** Thugs" were not then, nor have they 
 been since attempted to be carried into execution. 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GEISERAL BUTLER. 89 
 
 OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS OP GENERAL BUT- 
 LER—REBEL ATROCITIES. 
 
 To record in detail all the important orders which Gen- 
 eral Butler promulgated and enforced during his term in 
 the Department of the Gulf would require a much larger 
 space than we can give in this volume.* His controversies 
 and voluminous correspondence with the wily bankers ; his 
 numerous devices to create funds for the benefit of the poor ; 
 his personal and official offerings to charitable institutions 
 of all denominations ; his suspension of sympathizing clergy 
 from their duties and their banishment from the city ; his 
 surveillance, made necessary by their treason, over foreign 
 Consuls ; his correspondence with General Phelps ; his 
 regulations for the transportation and sale of cotton ; his 
 excellent quarantine laws ; his restoration of a sound cur- 
 rency ; his organization of a colored militia force ; his con- 
 fiscation laws ; his registration of neutral foreigners, and 
 compelling all citizens of the United States in his Depart- 
 ment, male and female, to describe their property ; and 
 the victorious results which attended the various armed 
 expeditions he sent out from New Orleans under gallant 
 officers, are all matters of interest wdiich will be handed 
 down in history as achievements of one of the most able 
 Commanders of the Union army who figured in the rebel- 
 lion. 
 
 Two orders of General Butler, dated on the 30th of 
 June, 18G2, from the atrocious misdeeds which caused 
 them to be issued, should be published. They are as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 ^ The most complete work of the kind published, is issued by 
 Mason Brothers, New York, under the name of " General Butler 
 in New Orleans. A History of the administration of the De- 
 partment of the Gulf in the 3ear 1862. By James Barton." It 
 is a worl: that we can also highly recommend to everybody. 
 9. 
 
90 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 " New Orleans, Jvme SOth, 1862. 
 
 " Mrs. Philips, wife of Philip Philips, having been once im- 
 prisoned for her traitorous proclivities and acts at Washington, 
 and released' by the clemency of the government, and having 
 been found training her children to spit upon officers of the 
 United States at New Orleans, for which act of one of those 
 children both her husband and herself apologized and were again 
 forgiven, is now found on the balcony of her house during the 
 passage of the funeral procession of Lieutenant De Kay, laugh- 
 ing and mocking at his remains ; and, upon being inquired of by 
 the commanding general if this fact were so, contemptuously 
 replies, ' I was in good spirits that day.' 
 
 ''It is therefore ordered, That she be not regarded and treated 
 as a common woman of whom no officer or soldier is bound to 
 take notice, but as an uncommon, bad and dangerous woman, 
 stirring up strife and inciting to riot. 
 
 "And that, therefore, she be confined at Ship Island, in the 
 State of Mississippi, within proper limits there, till further 
 orders ; and that she be allowed one female servant and no more 
 if she so choose. That one of the houses for hospital purposes 
 be assigned her as qjiarters ; and a soldier's ration each day be 
 served out to her, with the means *of cooking the same ; and 
 that no verbal or written communication be allowed with her 
 except through this office ; and that she be kept in close con- 
 finement until removed to Ship Island." 
 
 "New Orleans, Jwie 30th, 1862. 
 
 " Fidel Keller has been found exhibiting a human skeleton in 
 bis book-store window, in a public place in this city, labelled 
 * Chickahominy,' in large letters, meaning and intending that the 
 bones should be ta.ken by the populace to be the bones of a 
 United States soldier slain in that battle, in order to bring the 
 authority of the United States and our army into contempt, and 
 for that'purpose had stated to the passers-by that the bones 
 were those of a Yankee soldier ; whereas, in truth and fact, ihey 
 were the bones purchased some weeks before of the Mexican 
 consul, to whom they were pledged by a medical student. 
 
 "//{ is therefore ordered, That for this desecration of the dead, 
 lie be confiued at Ship Island for two years at hard labor, and 
 that he be allowed to communicate with no person on the island 
 except Mrs. Phili])s, who has been sent there for a like oflence. 
 Any written message may be sent by him through these head- 
 quarters." 
 
 " New Orleans, June SOth, 1862. 
 
 "John W. Andrews exhibited a cross, the emblem of the 
 suffering of our blessed Saviour, fashioned for a personal orna- 
 ment, v7hich he said was made from the bones of a Yankee 
 eoldier, and having shov;ii this too, without rebuke, in the 
 
LIFE OF MAJOK-GENERAL BUTLER. 91 
 
 Louisiana Club, wliicli claims to be composed of cliivalric gen- 
 tlemen, 
 
 ''It is therefore ordered, That for this desecration of the dead, 
 he be confined at hard labor for two years on the fortifications 
 of Ship Iskxnd, and that he be allowed no verbal or written 
 communication to or with any one, except through these head- 
 quarters." 
 
 GENERAL BUTLER REMOVED PROM COM- 
 MAND AT NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 On the evening of December 14th, 1862, Major-General 
 Banks arrived in New Orleans and presented the follow- 
 ing order to General Butler : 
 
 "War Department, A djutcmt- General's Office, 
 " Washington, November 9lh, 18G2. 
 General Order, No. 184. 
 
 " By direction of the President of the United States, Major- 
 General Banks is assigned to the command of the Department 
 of the Gulf, including the State of Texas. 
 *' By order of the Secretary of War. 
 
 " E. D. Thomas, Assistant Adjutant- General. 
 " H. W. Halleck, General-in-Chief" 
 
 Two daj^s later the command was formally surrendered 
 and the following order issued : 
 
 "Head-quarters, Department of the Gulf, 
 " New Orleans, December 15th, 1862. 
 General Order No. 106. 
 " Soldiers of the Army of the Gulf: 
 
 " Relieved from further duties in this department by direction 
 of the President, under date of November 9, 1862, I take leave 
 of you by this final order, it being impossible to visit your scat- 
 tered outposts, covering hundreds of miles of the frontier of a 
 larger territory than some of the kingdoms of Europe. 
 
 " I greet you, my brave comrades, and say farewell ! 
 _ " This word, endeared as you are by a community of priva- 
 tions, hardships, dangers, victories, successes, military and civil, 
 is the only sorrowful thought I have. 
 
 "You have deserved well of your country. Without a mur- 
 mur you sustained an encampment on a sand bar, so desolate 
 that banishment to it, with every care and comfort possible, has ' 
 been the most dreaded punishment inflicted upon your bitterest 
 and most insulting enemies. 
 
 "You had so little transportation, that but a handful could 
 
92 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENEEAL BUTLER. 
 
 advance to compel submission by the queen city of the rebellion, 
 whilst others waded breast-deep in the marshes which surround 
 St. Philip, and forced the surrender of a fort deemed impreg'uable 
 to land attack by the most skilful engineers of your country and 
 her enemy. 
 
 " At your occupation, order, law, quiet, and peace sprang to 
 this city, filled with the bravos of all nations, where for a score 
 of years, during the profoundest peace, human life was scarcely 
 safe at noonday. 
 
 " By your discipline you illustrated the best traits of the 
 American soldier, and enchained the admiration of those that 
 came to scoff. 
 
 " Landing with a military chest containing but seventy-five 
 dollars, from the hoards of a rebel government you have given 
 to your country's treasury nearly a half million of dollars, and 
 so supplied yourselves with the needs of your service that your 
 expeciition has cost your government less by four-jiftlis than 
 any other. 
 
 " You have fed the starving poor, the wives and children of 
 your enemies, so converting enemies into friends, that they have 
 sent their representatives to your congress, by a vote greater 
 than your entire numbers, from districts in which, when you 
 entered, you were tauntingly told that there was ' no one to raise 
 your flag.' 
 
 "By your practical philanthropy you have won the confidence 
 of the ' oppressed race' and the slave. Hailing you as deliverers, 
 they are ready to aid you as willing servants, faithful laborers, 
 or, using the tactics taught them by your enemies, to fight with 
 you in the field. 
 
 " By steady attention to the laws of health, you have stayed 
 the pestilence, and, humble instruments in the hands of God, 
 you have demonstrated the necessity that His creatures should 
 obey His laws, and, reaping His blessing in this most unhealthy 
 climate, you have preserved your ranks fuller than those of any 
 other battalions of the same length of service. 
 
 " You have met double numbers of the enemy, and defeated 
 him in the open field ; but I need not further enlarge upon this 
 topic. You were sent here to do that. 
 
 " I commend you to your commander. You are worthy of 
 his love. 
 
 " Farewell, my comrades ! again farewell ! 
 
 " Benj. F. Butler, 
 *' Major- General Commanding." 
 
 On the twenty-fourth of December he left the scene of 
 his arduous labors for New York, but before embarking 
 he prepared the following farewell address : 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 93 
 
 FAREWELL ADDRESS TO THE PEOPLE OP 
 
 NSW ORLEANS. 
 
 "Citizens of New Ort.kans : — It may not be inappropriate, 
 as it is not inopportune in occasion, that there should be ad- 
 dressed to you a few words at partin-g, by one whose name is to 
 be hereafter indissolubly connected with your city. 
 
 " I shall speak in no bitterness, because I am not conscious 
 of a single personal animosity. Commanding the Army of the 
 Gulf, I found you captured, but not surrendered ; conquered, but 
 not orderly ; relieved from the presence of an army, but inca- 
 pable of taking care of yourselves. I restored order, punished 
 crime, opened commerce, brought provisions to your starving 
 people, reformed your currency, and gave you quiet protection, 
 such as you had not enjoyed for many years. 
 
 " While doing this, my soldiers were subjected to obloquy, re- 
 proach, and insult. 
 
 " And now, speaking to you, who know the truth, I here 
 declare that whoever has quietly remained about his business, 
 affording neither aid nor comfort to the enemies of the United 
 States, has never been interfered with by the soldiers of the 
 United States. 
 
 "The men who had assumed to govern you and to defend 
 your city in arms having fled, some of your women flouted at 
 the presence of those who came to protect them. By a simple 
 order (No. 28). I called upon every soldier of this army to treat 
 the women of New Orleans as gentlemen should deal with the 
 sex, with such effect that I now call upon the just-minded ladies 
 of New Orleans to say whether they have ever enjoyed so com- 
 plete protection and calm quiet for themselves and their families 
 as since the advent of the United States troops, 
 
 " The enemies of my country, unrepentant and implacable, I 
 have treated with merited severity. T hold that rebellion is 
 treason, and that treason persisted in is death, and any punish- 
 ment short of that due a traitor gives so much clear gain to him 
 from the clemency of the government. Upon this thesis have I 
 administered the authority of the United States, because of 
 which I am not unconscious of complaint. I do not feel that I 
 have erred in too much harshness, for that harshness has ever 
 been exhibited to disloyal enemies to my country, and not to 
 loyal friends. To be sure, I n\ight have regaled you with the 
 amenities of British civilization, and yet been within the sup- 
 posed rules of civilized warfare. You might have been smoked 
 to death in caverns, as were the Covenanters of Scotland by the 
 command of a general of the royal house of England ; or roasted, 
 like the inhabitants of Algiers daring the French campaign; 
 your wives and daughters might have been given over to the 
 
94: LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 ravislier, as were the unfortunate dames of Spain in the Penin- 
 sular war ; or you might have been scalped and tomahawked as 
 our mothers were at Wyoming by the savage allies of Great 
 Britain in our own Eevolution ; your property could have been 
 turned over to indiscriminate 'loot,' like the palace of the Em- 
 peror of China ; works of art which adorned your buildings might 
 have been sent away, like -the paintings of the Vatican ; your 
 sons mio-ht have been blown from the mouths of cannon, like tlie 
 Sepoys at Delhi; and yet all this would have been within the 
 rules of civilized warfare as practised by the most polished and 
 the most hypocritical nations of Europe. For such acts the 
 records of the doings of some of the inhabitauts of your city 
 toward the friends of the Union, before my coming, were a suf- 
 ficient provocative and justification. 
 
 "But I have not so conducted. On the contrary, thfe worst 
 punishment inflicted, except for criminal acts punishable by 
 every law, has been banishment with labor to a barren island, 
 where I encamped my own soldiers before marching here. 
 
 " It is true, I have levied upon the wealthy rebels, and paid out 
 nearly half a million of dollars to feed 40,000 of the starving 
 poor of all nations assembled here, made so by this war. 
 
 " I saw that this rebellion was a war of the aristocrats against 
 the middling men— of the rich against the poor; a war of the 
 land-owner against the laborer ; that it was a struggle for the 
 retention of power in the hands of the few against the many ; 
 and I found no conclusion to it, save in the subjugation of the 
 few and the disinthrallment of the many. I, therefore, felt no 
 hesitation in taking the substance of the wealthy, who had 
 caused the war, to feed the innocent poor, who had suffered by 
 the war. . And I shall now leave you with the proud conscious- 
 ness that I carry with me the blessings of the humble and loyal, 
 under the roof of the cottage and in^the cabin of the slave, and 
 so am quite content to incur the sneers of the salon, or the 
 curses of the rich. 
 
 " I found you trembling at the terrors of servile insurrection. 
 All danger of this I have prevented by so treating the slave 
 that he has no cause to rebel. 
 
 *'I found the dungeon, the chain, and the lash your only 
 means of enforcing obedience in your servants. I leave them 
 peaceful, laborious, controlled by the laws of kindness and 
 justice. 
 
 "I have demonstrated that the pestilence can be kept from 
 your borders. 
 
 " I have added a million of dollars to your wealth in the form 
 of new land from the batture of the Mississippi. 
 
 " I have cleansed and improved your streets, canals, and pub- 
 lic squares, and opened new avenues to unoccupied land. 
 
 " I have given you freedom of elections greater than you have 
 ever enjo3'ed before. 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GK^TERAL BUTLER. 95 
 
 '* I have cansed justice to be administered so impartially that 
 y.our own advocates have unanimously complimented the Judges 
 of my appointment. 
 
 '■You have seen, therefore, thf^ benefit of the laws and justice 
 of the Government against which you have rebelled. 
 
 " Why, then, will you not all return to your allegiance to that 
 Government — not with lip-service, but -with the heart ? 
 
 *' I conjure you, if you desire ever to see renewed prosperity, 
 giving business to your streets and wharves — if you hope to see 
 your city become again the mart of the western world, fed by 
 its rivers for more than three thousand miles, draining the com- 
 merce of a country greater than the mind of man hath ever con- 
 ceived — return to your allegiance, 
 
 " If you desire to leave to your children the inheritance you 
 received from your fathers — a stable constitutional government; 
 if you desire that they should in the future be a portion of the 
 greatest empire the sun ever shone upon — return to your alle- 
 giance. 
 
 " There is but one thing that stands in the way. 
 
 " There is but one thing that at this hour stands between you 
 and the Government — and that is slavery, 
 
 "The institution, cursed of God, which has taken its last 
 refuge here, in His providence wall be rooted out as the tares 
 from the wheat, although the wheat be torn up with it. 
 
 " I have given much thought to this subject. 
 
 " I came among you, by teachings, by habit of mind, by po- 
 litical position, by social affinity, inclined to sustain your do- 
 mestic laws, if by possibility they might be with safety to the 
 Union. 
 
 " Months of experience and of observation have forced the 
 conviction that the existence of slavery is incompatible with 
 the safety either of yourselves or of the Union, As the system 
 has gradually grown to its present huge dimensions, it were 
 best if it could be gradually removed ; but it is better, far better, 
 that it should be taken out at once, than that it should longer 
 vitiate the social, political and family relations of your country. 
 I am speaking with no philanthropic views as regards the slave, 
 but simply of the effect of slavery on the master. See for your- 
 selves, 
 
 '' Look around you and say whether this saddening, deadening 
 influence has not all but destroyed the very framework of your 
 society. 
 
 " I am speaking the farewell words of one who has shown his 
 devotion to his country at the peril of his life and fortune, who 
 in these words can have neither hope nor interest, save the good 
 of those whom he addresses ; and let me here repeat, with all 
 the solemnity of an appeal to Heaven to bear me witness, that 
 such are the views forced upon me by experience, 
 
 " Come, then, to the unconditional support of the Govern- 
 G 
 
96 LIFE OF MAJOK-GEXERAL BUTLER. 
 
 ment. Take into yonr own hands your own institutions ; remodel 
 them according to tiie laws of nations and of God, and thus at- 
 tain that great prosperity assured to you by geographical posi- 
 tion, only a portion of which was heretofore yours. 
 
 " Benjamin F. Butler. 
 *'New Orleans, Dec. 24th, 1862." 
 
 On the 23d of the same month, as appeared from Rich- 
 mond journals subsequently received, Jefferson Davis 
 issued a proclamation pronouncing and declaring his old 
 friend and admirer, General Butler, ''to be a felon, de- 
 serving of capital punishment," but as the fulmination, 
 however false its statements may be, is a part of the his- 
 tory of the subject of our sketch we give it entire : 
 
 , A PROCLAMATION. 
 
 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES. 
 
 " Whereas, a communication was addressed on the 6th day 
 of July last, 1882, by General Robert E. Lee, acting under the 
 instructions of the Secretary of War of the Confederate States 
 of America, to General H. W. Halleck, Gommander-in chief 
 of the United States army, informing the latter that a report 
 had reached this government that Wm. B. Mumford, a citizen 
 of the Confederate States, had been executed by the United 
 States authorities at New Orleans for having pulled down the 
 United States flag in that city before its occupation by the 
 United States forces, and calling for a statement of the facts, 
 with a view of retaliation if sucii an outrage had really been 
 committed under the sanction of the authorities of the United 
 States. 
 
 *'And whereas (no answer having been received to said letter), 
 another letter was, on the 2nd of August last, 1862, addressed by 
 General Lee, under my instructions, to General Halleck, re- 
 newing the inquiries in relation to the execution of the said Mum- 
 ford, with the information that, in the event of not receiving a 
 reply within fifteen days, it would be assumed that the fact was 
 true, and was sanctioned by the government of the United 
 States ; 
 
 "And whereas, an answer, dated on the 7th of August last, 
 1862, was addressed to General Lee by General H. W. Halleck, 
 the said geueral-in-chief of the armies of the United States, 
 alleging suflicient cause for failure to make early reply to said 
 letter of the 6th of July, asserting that ' no authentic informa- 
 tion had been received in relation to the execution of Mumford ; 
 but measures will be immedialely taken to ascertain the facts 
 of the alh'ged exfcntiun.' and promising that General Lee 
 should be duly inlbrnied therovif; 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 97 
 
 "And whereas, on the 2Gih of November last, 1862, another 
 letter was addressed, under my instructions, by Robert Quid, 
 Confederate agent for the exchange of prisoners, under the 
 cartel between the two governments, to Lieutenant-Colonel W. 
 H. Ludlow, agent of the United States under said cartel, in- 
 forming him that the explanation promised in the said letter of 
 General Halleck, of 7th of August last, bad not yet been 
 received, and that if no answer was sent to the government 
 within fifteen days from the delivery of this last communication, it 
 would be considered that an answer is dL'cliued ; 
 
 "And whereas, by a letter dated on the l>d day of the present 
 month of December, the said Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow ap- 
 prised the said Robert Ould that the above recited communica- 
 tion of the 19th of November had been received and forwarded 
 to the Secretary of War of the United States; and whereas, 
 this last delay of fifteen days allowed for answer has elapsed, 
 and no answer has been received ; 
 
 "And whereas, in addition to the tacit admission resulting 
 from the above refusal to answer, I have received evidence fully 
 establishing the truth of the fact that the said William B, 
 Mumford, a citizen of the Confederacy, was actually and publicly 
 executed in cold blood, by hanging, after the occupation of the 
 city of New Orleans by the forces under General Benjamin F. 
 Butler, when said Mumford was an unresisting and non-com- 
 batant captive, and for no offence even alleged to have been 
 committed by him subsequent to the date of the capture of the 
 said city ; 
 
 "And whereas, the silence of the government of the United 
 States, and its maintaining of said Butler in high office under 
 its authority for many months after his commission of an act 
 that can be viewed in no other light than as a deliberate murder, 
 as well as of numerous other outrages and atrocities hereafter 
 to be mentioned, afibrd evidence too conclusive that the said 
 government sanctions the conduct of the said Butler, and is 
 determined that he shall remain unpunished for these crimes; 
 
 " Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, the President of the 
 Confederate States of America, and in their name, do pronounce 
 and declare the said Benjamin F. Butler to be a felon, deserving 
 of capital punishment. I do order that he shall no longer be 
 considered or treated simply as a public enemy of the Confeder- 
 ate States of America, but as an outlaw and common enemy of 
 mankind, and that, in the event of his capture, the officer in 
 command of the capturing force do cause him to be immediately 
 executed by hanging. 
 
 "And I do farther order that no commissioned officer of the 
 United States, taken captive, shall be released on parole, before 
 exchanged, until the' said Butler shall have met with due punish- 
 ment for his crimes. 
 
 "And whereas, the hostilities waged against this Confederacy 
 
98 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 by the forces of the United States, under the command of said 
 Benjamin F. Butler, have borne no resemblance to such warfare 
 as is alone permissible by the rules of international law or the 
 usages of civilization, but have been characterized by repeated 
 atrocities and outrages, among the large number of which the 
 following may be cited as examples : 
 
 " Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and non- 
 combatants, have been confined at hard labor, with hard chains 
 attached to their limbs, and are still so held, in dungeons and 
 fortresses, 
 
 " Others have been submitted to a like degrading punishment 
 for selling medicines to the sick soldiers of the Confederacy. 
 
 "The soldiers of the United States have been invited and 
 encouraged in general orders to insult and outrage the wives, 
 the mothers, and the sisters of our citizens. 
 
 " Helpless women have been torn from their homes, and 
 subjected to solitary confinement, some in fortresses and prisons, 
 and one especially on an island of barren sand, under a tropical 
 sun ; have been fed w'ith loathsome rations that have been con- 
 demned as unfit for soldiers, and have been exposed to the vilest 
 insults. 
 
 " Prisoners of war, who surrendered to the naval forces of 
 the United States, on agreement that they should be released 
 on parole, have been seized and kept in close confinement. 
 
 " Eepeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plunder- 
 ing the inhabitants of a captured city, by fines levied and 
 collected under threats of imprisoning recusants at hard labor 
 with ball and chain. The entire population of New Orleans 
 have been forced to elect between starvation by the confiscation 
 of all their property and taking an oath against conscience to 
 bear allegiance to the invader of their country. 
 
 " Egress from the city has been refused to those whose forti- 
 tude withstood the test, and even to lone and aged women, and 
 to helpless children ; and, after being ejected from their homes 
 and robbed of their property, they have been left to starve in 
 the streets or subsist on charity. 
 
 " The slaves have been driven from the plantations in the 
 neighborhood of New Orleans until their owners would consent 
 to share their crops with the commanding general, his brother, 
 Andrew J. Butler, and other officers ; and when such consent had 
 been extorted, the slaves have been restored to the plantations, 
 and there compelled to work under the bayonets of the guards 
 of United States soldiers. Where that partnership was refused, 
 armed expeditions have been sent to the plantations to rob them 
 of every thing that was susceptible of removal. 
 
 "And even slaves, too aged or infirm for work, have, in spite 
 of their entreaties, been forced from the homes provided by 
 their owners, and driven to wander helpless on the highway. 
 
 " By a recent General Order No. 91, the entire property in 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR- GENE IwVL BUTLER. 99 
 
 that part of Louisiana west of the Mississippi river has been 
 sequestered for confiscation, and officers have been assigned to 
 duty, with orders to gather up and coUect the personal property, 
 and turn over to the proper officers, upon their receipts, such 
 of said property as may be required for the use of the United 
 States army; to collect together all other personal property and 
 bring the same to New Orleans, and cause it to be sold at pub- 
 lic auction to highest bidders — an order which, if executed, 
 condemns to punishment, by starvation, at least a quarter of a 
 million of human beings, of all ages, sexes, and conditions, and 
 of which the execution, although forbidden to military officers 
 by the orders of President Lincoln, is in accordance with the 
 confiscation law of our enemies, which he has effected to be en- 
 forced through the agency of civil officials. 
 
 "And, finally, the African slaves have not only been incited 
 to insurrection by every license and encouragement, but num- 
 bers of them have actually been armed for a servile war — a war 
 in its nature far exceeding the horrors and most merciless atroci- 
 ties of savages. 
 
 "And whereas, the officers under command of the said Butler, 
 have been, in many instances, active and zealous agents in the 
 commission of these crimes, and no instance is known of the 
 refusal of any one of them to participate in the outrages above 
 narrated ; 
 
 "And whereas, the President of the United States has, by 
 public and official declarations, signified not only his approval 
 of the eff"ort to excite servile war w^ithin the confederacy, but 
 his intention to give aid and encouragement thereto, if these in- 
 dependent States s^all continue to refuse submission to a foreign 
 power after the 1st day of January next, and has thus made 
 known that all appeal to the law of nations, the dictates of 
 reason, and the instincts of humanity w^ould be addressed in 
 vain to our enemies, and that they can be deterred from the 
 commission of these crimes only by the terrors of just tribula- 
 tion. 
 
 "Now, therefore, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Con 
 federate States of America, and acting by their authority, ap- 
 pealing to the Divine Judge in attestation that their conduct is 
 not guided by the passion of revenge, but that they reluctantly 
 yield to the solemn duty of redressing, by necessary severity, 
 crimes of which their citizens are the victims, do issue this my 
 proclamation, and, by virtue of my authority as commander-in- 
 chief of the armies of the Confederate Slates, do order — 
 
 ''First — That all commissioned officers in the command of 
 ■ said Benjamin F. Butler be declared not entitled to be considered 
 as soldiers engaged in honorable warfare, but as robbers and^ 
 criminals, deserving death ; and that they and each of them be, 
 whenever captured, reserved for execution. 
 
 "*Seco7uZ— -That the private soldiers and non-commissioned 
 
100 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 oflScers in the army of said Butler be considered as only the in- 
 struments used for the commission of crimes perpetrated by his 
 orders, and not as free agents; that they, therefore, be treated, 
 when captured as prisoners of war, with kindness and humanity, 
 and be sent home on the usual parole that they will in no man- 
 ner aid or serve the United States in any capacity during the 
 continuance of this war, unless duly exchanged. 
 
 " Third — That all negro slaves captured in arms be at once 
 delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective 
 States to which they belong, to be dealt with according to the 
 law of said States. 
 
 ''Fourth — That the like orders be issued in all cases with re- 
 spect to the commissioned officers of the United States when 
 found serving in company with said slaves in insurrection against 
 the authorities of the ditterent States of this Confederacy. 
 
 " In testimony whereof, I have signed these presents, and 
 caused the seal of the Confederate States of America to be affixed 
 thereto, at the city of Richmond, on the 23d day of December, 
 in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
 two. " Jefferson Davis. 
 
 "By the President. 
 
 " J. P. BenjaxMin, Secretary of StateJ^ 
 
 Soon after the proclamation was published, a citizen of 
 South Carolina offered the following reward : 
 
 "Ten Thousand Dollars Reward I— $10,000 !— President 
 Davis having proclaimed Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, 
 to be a felon, deserving of capital punishment, for the deliberate 
 murder of Wm. B. Mumford, a citiz(Mi of the Confederate States 
 at New Orleans; and having ordered that the said Benjamin F. 
 Butler be considered or treated as an outlaw and common enemy 
 of mankind, and that, in the event of his capture, the officer in 
 command of the capturing force do cause him to be immediately 
 executed by hanging, the undersigned hereby offers a reward of 
 ten thousand dollars (!ti;10,000) for the capture and delivery of 
 the said Benjamin F. Butler, dead or alive, to any proper Con- 
 federate authority. " Richard Yeadon. 
 
 " Charleston, S. C, January \st, 1863." 
 
 Upon his return to the North, General Butler was 
 received with honors and plaudits in every city and town 
 through which he passed, and although subsequently, for 
 some months, deprived of active participation in the civil 
 struggle, he gave a most unwavering support to the 
 government, and by his influence and advice, was of great 
 benefit to the country and the cause. His public ad- 
 
LIFE OF JklAJOK-CENEKAL BUTLER. . 101 
 
 dresaos in TsTevv York, Boston, and other cities, were most 
 complete triumphs, but amid all the enthusiasm, he never 
 forg'ot his self-respect nor disinterested patriotism, and 
 ui)on all occasions referred in exalted terms to the Ad- 
 ministration, which he said, it was true, was not his choice, 
 but if, in the hour of his country's trials, ho failed to sup- 
 port it, he was "a traitor and a false man." 
 
 KETUKE-S TO ACTIVE SERVICE AND ASSUMES 
 COMMAISTD OF THE DAPABTMEE-T OP VIR- 
 GINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 Earl}^ in ^^ovember, 18G3, General Butler returned to 
 active service, and on the eleventh of that month he 
 arrived at Fortress Monroe and issued the following order : 
 
 ''General Orders — No. 29. 
 " Head-quarters, Department of Viroinia 
 
 AND North Carolina, 
 " Fortress Monroe, Va., Nov. llth, 1863. 
 
 " T. — By direction of the President, Major-General Benjamin 
 F. Butler, United States Volunteers, hereby assumes command 
 of the Eighteenth army corps and Department of Eastern Vir- 
 ginia and North Carolina. 
 
 " 11. — Each commander of division, separate brigade, post, 
 district or detached command, and each cliief of a staff depart- 
 ment, will forthwith report to these head-quarters the exact con- 
 dition of his command, and the supplies of his department re- 
 spectively, accompanied with such remarks in relation thereto 
 as he shall see fit. 
 
 " Each report shall have minuted thereon the date of the re- 
 ception of this order and the date of the transmission of such 
 report. 
 
 " The utmost despatch, minuteness and particularity are re- 
 quired in these reports. 
 
 "III. — The following named officers are announced as upou 
 the staff of the Commandino- General : 
 
 "Colonel J. Wilson Shaffer, A. D. C, Chief of Staff. 
 
 "Lieutenant-Colonel J. McLean Taylor, Chief Commissary. 
 
 "Lieutenant-Colonel George A. Kensel, Inspector-General. 
 
 "Major Robert S. Davis, Assistant Adjutant-General 
 
 " Lieutenant-Colonel J. Burnliam Kinsman, Aide-du-Camp. 
 
 " Major Joseph M. Bell, x\id(;-de-('amp. 
 
 " Major Peter tlaggcrty, Aide de-Camp. 
 
102 LIFE OF MAJOK-GENERAL BUTLEK. 
 
 " Captain Alfred V. Vuffor, Aide-do-Camp. 
 
 "Captain Haswell C. Clark, Aide-de-Canip. 
 
 "First Lieutenant Fredericlv Martin, Volunteer Aide-do-Camp, 
 
 "IV. — All orders heretoi'ore issued in this Departnient will 
 remain in force until otherwise ordered. 
 
 " By command of " Major-Crneral Butler. 
 
 " " R. S. Davis, Major and Assistant Adjutant- General. 
 
 " Official — A, F. Puffer, Captain and Aide-de-Camp. 
 
 The following additional staff officers were subse- 
 quently announced : 
 
 " Col. H. C. Lee, Twenty-seventh Massachusetts Volunteers, 
 Provost Marshal-General. 
 
 " Lieut.-Col. Herman Bi^'gs, Chief Quartermaster. 
 
 " Lieut.-Col. R. V. W. ifoward, Inspector of Artillery, 
 
 "Surgeon Charles McCormick, Medical Director. 
 
 " Major J. L. Stackpole, Judge Advocate. 
 
 " Captain Wm. Cogswell, Commissary of Musters. 
 
 "Captain F. U. Farcpihar, Chief Engineer. 
 
 " Lieut. Jasper Myers, Chief of Ordnance." 
 
 On the following day he determined to nip in the bud 
 the practice indulged in by the treasonable residents of bis 
 Department, who had been in the habit of insulting and 
 annoying the loyal citizens and military, and he accordj 
 ingly issued an order to the following effect : 
 
 " Representations having been made to the Commanding Gen- 
 eral that certain disloyally'-disposed persons within this Depart- 
 ment do occasionally, by force, interfere with, and by opprobrious 
 and threatening language insult and annoy loyal persons em- 
 ployed in the quiet discharge of their lawful occupations, it is 
 hereby announced that all such conduct and language is hereafter 
 strictly forbidden, and will be punished with military severity. 
 
 "All officers in this Department are directed to order the ar- 
 rest of, and to bring such persons as are found offending against 
 this order before the tribunal established for the purpose of pun- 
 ishing offences within this Department." 
 
 A week later he paid an official visit to North Carolina, 
 - w^here he made a searching inspection of the fortifications 
 and troops, and acquainted himself thoroughly with the 
 lines and with the disposition of the troops. 
 
 The principal characteristic orders which he has pro- 
 mulgated are the following : 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 103 
 
 GEjNTEilAL BUTLER SEIZES THE GAS WORKS 
 OF NORFOLK. 
 
 The Gas Company of Norfolk having sealed np their 
 works and refused for six or eight months to light the 
 city, General Butler ordered the establishment to be 
 seized. Thereupon the directors came out under the 
 "constitutional rights," and argued that the military 
 authorities had no right to seize the works under the 
 Constitution. General Butler's letter contains the argu- 
 ment of the directors and General Butler's answer : 
 
 *' Head-quarters Eighteenth Army Corps, Department of 
 
 YlRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA, FoRTRESS MoNROE, Ya., 
 
 ''December 29th, 1863. 
 
 " General :— I have received your communication of the 24th 
 of December, to A. T. M. Cooke, Esq., Chairman of the stock- 
 holders' meeting of the Norfolk Gas Company, coverincr the 
 letter of Mr. Cooke to yourself, relating to the taking of tlie 
 Norfolk Gas Works ,by the military authorities of the United 
 States, and beg that you will forward him this communication 
 in reply. 
 
 "Mr. Cooke claims for the Gas-Light Company that they 
 possess very valuable works, for which they now claim lari^e 
 compensation from the Government; that the majority of the 
 stockhoklers have duly conformed to the requirements of Gen- 
 eral Order No. 49, and that the Company were about putting the 
 works in order when they were taken by the Government for 
 military purposes, in violation of the constitutional rights of the 
 stockholders. 
 
 " It will be observed, first, that until within a few days, a major- 
 ity of the stockholders have acknowledged and are known as 
 having been in rebellion against the Government of the United 
 States, and as having endeavored to overthrow that Constitution, 
 about which now they so glibly talk, and have only just now 
 taken the oath of allegiance to that Government which they 
 have sought to destroy, in conformity to the requirements of a 
 military order. And even now, under these peculiar circum- 
 stances, with the oath fresh in their mouths, in a communication 
 irom the stockholders to the agents of the Government, with 
 their claims of new-fledged rights frequently repeated, the word 
 loyalty or allegiance to the Government never finds place. They , 
 say that they have conformed to the requirements of General 
 Order No. 49. That order requires of them nothing ; and more 
 
104 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 than one of thern have said, as I am informed and believe, that 
 they took the oath to save their property, and that they claim, 
 not that they are loyal, but that they have taken out a proLec- 
 tion. 
 
 " Such men, loyal with lip-service only, so far as I am con- 
 cerned, have few constitutional rights which I feel much in- 
 clined to respect. When they become loyal in heart as on lip, 
 and speak of taking the oath of allegiance to their country, not 
 as a requirement but as a duty, it will be time enough to discuss 
 their constitutional rights. If their property is as valuable as 
 they claim it, why have the Company left it to go to ruin for 
 many months, without any attempt on their part to put the gas- 
 works in operation and light the city? Did their i-ebellious pro- 
 clivities overcome even their love of gain, so that they were 
 willing to sacrifice their property rather than to aid the Govern- 
 ment of the United States by lighting it in protecting their city 
 from the robber, the burglar, and the incendiary ? Is it not true 
 that they have refused the military authorities of the United 
 States, more than once, to light the city, and continued in that 
 refusal until after they were informed that the works were to be 
 seized upon for that purpose, and the Government had incurred 
 expenses in that. behalf ? 
 
 " I should be quite inclined, as an act of justice, to promise 
 them in the future a monthly average rent equal to what they 
 have received for the past nine months, as a compensation from 
 the Government for the use of their works. Their Chairman 
 talks of the economical management of the Company as com- 
 pared with the prospective management of the Government, and 
 he certainly ought to be quite satisfied if he is assured from the 
 Government the same rent wdiich he has received under his own 
 management. Exactly what will be done is this : the works will 
 be put in repair, more economically by twenty per cent, than the 
 estimate which was made for the Company for the repair of the 
 works. 
 
 " They will be carried on efficiently and economically, so that 
 the city of Norfolk will be fully lighted, and its peace and quiet 
 in the darkness of the night be assured, until it is made certain, 
 that in case of an attack upon the city of Norfolk, the rebel 
 proclivities of the owners will not leave the city in darkness, as 
 a means of impairing the defence made by the United States 
 forces, and when the owners have, by their works, and not by 
 their lips, convinced the military authorities that they can rely 
 upon their loyalty for aid in repelling an invasion of the rebels, 
 and a keeping-up of the works to aid us in that behalf, then, and 
 not until then, will the works be returned to their custody. 
 
 " In the meantime accurate accounts will be kept of the 
 receipts and expenditures, and the excess of profits, which no 
 doubt will be considerable, will be paid to those who are loyal 
 in the sense of the word as understood by loyal men. 
 
LIFE OP MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 105 
 
 " You are at liberty, General, if you please, to cause this 
 couiniuiiication to be published for tlj.e information of other 
 citizens, if any in Norfolk, who stand iu like case. '* 
 " I have the honor to be, 
 
 " Yery respectfully, yours, 
 [Signed] " B. F. Butler, 
 
 " Major-General Commanding. 
 " To Brigadier-G<neral Jamks Baknes, 
 
 " Gommanding at Norfolk.'^ 
 
 THE PERFECTIONISTS AI^D GENERAL 
 BUTLER. 
 
 In Norfolk there is a society called '' Perfectionists," 
 and in their behalf some ten or twelve of their number 
 addressed a letter to the Commanding-General, setting 
 forth their objections to swearing allegiance to any earthly 
 Government. The subject was disposed of by General 
 Butler in the following manner : 
 
 " Head-quarters Eighteenth Army Corps, 
 
 " Fortress Monroe, Ya., January loth, 18G4. 
 " To J. F. Dozier, E. H. Beaseley, and others : 
 
 " Gentlemen : I have read your petition to General Barnes, 
 setting forth your objections to swearing allegiance to any 
 earthly government. The first reason which you set forth is 
 that 'all human governments are a necessary evil, and are 
 continued in existence only by the permission of Jehovah 
 until the time arrives for the establishment of His kingdom, 
 and in the establishment of which all others will be subdued 
 into it, thus fulfilling that declaration in the 8th of Daniel and 
 14th verse, etc' 
 
 "You therein establish to your own satisfaction three points : 
 First — The Government, although an evil, is a necessary one. 
 Second — That for a time it is permitted to exist by the wisdom 
 of Jehovah. Third — That the time at which a period is to be 
 put to its existence is not yet come. Therefore^ you ought to 
 swear allegiance to the Government of the United States ! 
 First — Because, though an evil, you admit it to be necessary. 
 Second — Although an evil, you admit that it is permitted by the 
 wisdom of Jehovah, and it is not for His creatures to question 
 the wisdom of His acts. Third — You only claim to be excused 
 when Jehovah's Government is substituted, which period, you 
 admit, has not yet arrived. 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 
 " Benjamin F. Butler." 
 
106 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 A LIAR PUNISHED. 
 
 • ''Special Order-^No. 23. 
 
 " Fortress Monroe, January lUh, 1864. 
 "Charles H. Graham, of Norfolk, having corresponded with 
 the enemy clandestinely, by sending a scurrilous letter concern- 
 ing the commanding-general, and then lying about it in the 
 most solemn manner by denying the authorship, which he now 
 confesses, having been confined in tlie guard-house until he could 
 tell the truth, has been discharged. He would have been 
 punished further if he had written upon any other subject. 
 By command of 
 
 '^ Major- General Butler." 
 
 THE BEBELS CHECKED. 
 
 " General Orders — No, 12. 
 "Head-quarters, Eighteenth Army Corps, 
 
 " Department of Virginia and North Carolina. 
 
 " Fortress Monroe, Ya., January 2Uh, 1864. 
 
 " Inasmuch as the rebels of the Confederate States are sending 
 their women and children through the lines of this Department, 
 and retaining by law, all able-bodied male persons, it. is ordered, 
 
 " 1. That no white women or children will be permitted to 
 come through the lines, without a pass from these head-quarters, 
 or the head-quarters of the Army of North Carolina. 
 
 "2. All able-bodied men will be received, detained urtil re- 
 ported to these head-quarters, or the head-quarters tf the 
 District and Army of North Carolina, and orders are given 
 concerning them. 
 
 " 3. Nothing in this order shall be construed in conflicl; with 
 General Order No. 46, relating to colored persons. 
 
 "By command of Major-General B. F. Butler. 
 
 " E. S. Davis, Major and Ass't Adj't-General^ 
 
 ANOTHER REBEL WOMAN PUNISHED. 
 
 '' Special Order — No. 25. 
 "Fortress Monroe, January 2bth, 1£')4. 
 "That Mrs. Jennie Graa'es, of Norfolk, having a hus1>3;»d in 
 the rebel States, and having taken the oath of allegiance on t je 2d 
 inst., as she says to save her property, and also having dec''ared 
 that her sympathies are with the South still, and that she h. )pes 
 they will be successful, be sent through the lines and laailf I at 
 City Point, so that she may be where her hopes and her 'jyR pa- 
 thies are. 
 
 " By command of Major-General Bui n, ' 
 
LIFE OF MAJOR-GEXERAL BUTLER. 107 
 
 GENERAL BUTLER AT POINT LOOKOUT. 
 
 Some idea of the Southern feeling for General Butler 
 may be elicited from the following editorial which ap- 
 peared in the Pvichmond Examine.}" of December 30, 
 1863. Of course, except the fact of the visit, the article 
 is merely a succession of falsehoods : 
 
 *' The five hundred paroled Confederate prisoners who arrived 
 in this city on Monday night are mostly from Louisiana and 
 Maryland. They were escorted to the paroled camp at Camp 
 Lee, except a few who obtained furloughs to remain in this city. 
 The prisoners relate an incident that occurred on the 24th in- 
 stant at Point Lookout, Maryland, upon the occasion of the 
 visit of Butler, the "cross-eyed tyrant," to the prisoners' camp. 
 He came with his staff surrounding his mailed carcass, and a 
 couple of hundred mounted guard forming a solid phalanx about 
 him, or dashing hither and thither. 'J'he Beast, for the first time 
 in his military experience, was in the midst of eight or ten thou- 
 sand of the men he had most reason to fear, even without arms, 
 and his guilty coward soul must have trembled as their yells, 
 jeers and hissing volley of hatred, contempt and derision smote 
 upon him like a pelting storm. The Louisianians were particularly 
 exasperated, and seemed bent on personal harm to the wretch 
 who dared, while conscious of security, to insult them by his pres- 
 ence, like the jackall that dances in front of the snared lion. 
 But better counsel prevailed. A wall sixteen feet high inclosed 
 them, with cannon mounted and pointing from the block-houses, 
 ready to sweep them with grape. The Beast, less noble in ap- 
 pearance than the animal he rode, signified that he wished to 
 speak to some of the prisoners, and struck up a conversation 
 with a squad concerning the rations furnished. Learning the 
 quantity and quality he said they were entitled to more and 
 should receive it. This was evidently a compromise dodge of 
 the old blear-eyed blasphemer, and was intended to conciliate 
 the jeers, taunts and curses that belabored him on every side ; 
 sucli as, ' What will you take for your head ?' ' Pay me the 
 money you robbed me of in New Orleans ;' 'Why don't you 
 fight men and not women ?' ' When did you fight your last 
 battle?' ' How much are you worth, you burglar ?' 'Oh, bag 
 your head ;' ' Why didn't you come to see us on the battle- 
 field ?' etc. 
 
 " These expressions were delivered all the while Butler was 
 speaking, and at the close of his remarks he rode off with his 
 staff aiid body guard, as he came, the butt of a thousand jokes 
 and jeers. 
 
108 LIFE OF MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER. 
 
 " This exhibition of the Beast in the midst of disarmed prison 
 ers places the cowardice of the abject, wretch in a most despica- 
 ble light. Knowing he was justly hated by them for the nu 
 nieroLis wrongs practised ujjon them, and afraid to meet them in 
 the field, with arms in their hands and their flag overhead, he 
 chose to appear among them when he knew his person, while 
 secure from harm, would add insult to the injury they had already 
 suffered at his stained, unholy and sacrilegious hand." 
 
 Since taking command of the Department of Yirginia 
 and North Carolina, he has exercised the same inde- 
 pendence which has marked his rule wherever he has been 
 in an administrative position. To add to the intricacies 
 of his other duties he has been acting as Commissioner 
 for Exchange of prisoners, and although the rebels refuse 
 to recognize him, in pursuance to Jefferson Davis's 
 Proclamation, he has accomplished the release of many 
 of the Union captives. Trade has prospered under his 
 regulations ; the people have experienced a greater feeling 
 of security ; and the new element which has been intro- 
 duced into the service — colored soldiers — has rapidly 
 increased in strength. 
 
 We do not detract from the merits of his predecessors, 
 when we say that the selection of General Butler to the 
 command at Fortress Monroe, was an act of wisdom 
 which reflected credit upon the administration. De- 
 spised as he is by the rebels at the South, and their 
 treasonable coadjutors within the limits of his jurisdiction, 
 there is no commander they fear more, or whose orders 
 the latter obey with more alacrity ; and no greater com- 
 pliment could be paid to his ability and worth as an 
 administrative officer, than the fact that he is so despised. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 
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