Benjamin Butler

[JPK Huson 1863]

"General Benjamin F. Butler had taken a more politic course in Virginia, at his command post at Fortress Monroe. Because it formed a direct precedent for the Federal formula as it actually emerged, the general's action is entitled to examination. Hardly a month after Sumter, three slaves who had been used to build a Confederate battery arrived within Butler's lines. Benjamin Butler had been a politician before he became a general, and he was quick to read the signs of the times. A few weeks earlier, his offer to use his troops to put down a possible slave uprising in Maryland had brought him the severest censure from the abolitionist wing of the Republican party in Massachusetts, Butler's home state. Therefore, when a Confederate officer arrived under a flag of truce to claim the runaway Negroes, the general was in a quandary. HAving ascertained that the Negroes in question were about to be sent to South Carolina to help on the fortifications there, Butler borrowed a chapter from international law, declaring that the slaves were now "contraband of war" and refused to return then. In the subtle way of slave "intelligence" the news spread, and within three days, Butler had $60,000 worth of human contraband on his hands."

--Willie Lee Rose, Rehearsal for Reconstruction, pgs 13-14.

This may be a sourced quote from a book but I'm crying nonsense on how Butler is portrayed. This implies, if not outright states Butler was merely being political, refusing to return enslaved- and slips in information he offered to use his troops to quell a slave uprising. It is crafted in a way to make it clear Butler is that guy, in this publication, the unlovely, much hated persona reviled in song and legend.

Were generals allowed to haul off and offer help ( especially Union generals ) to go quell slave uprisings? One would imagine this would be a Southerner, owning enslaved, having trouble with those pesky people continually wanting their freedom. So- a Union general hears of this Southern slave owner in difficulties ( a New England general toboot ) and offers United States enlisted men ( who joined ' The Union Forever ' ) to go forcibly stuff the enslaved back into their little, cute slave cabins? It just sounds extremely, extremely unlikely.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

Butler did some things which made him very unpopular with the slave-owning aristocrats of New Orleans, but some don't like to talk about that, so they focus on things like the order about the women of New Orleans. Many of the elites believed that whipping slaves and then brining them was simply a necessity of life, but they often didn't want to do that deed themselves, so they placed their slaves in the slave jail and had the constables whip them.

Butler shut down the slave jail. He ended the practice of selling babies of incarcerated slaves for the profit of the state. He tore down the whipping post.

He ordered an old man who was whipping his 14 year old slave in the yard and she was screaming as her naked back was lashed, to stop. When word came to him the next day that the old man was again in the yard lashing the slave, Butler ordered him jailed.

He also employed the Irish and German laborers who'd been bullied, beaten, and disenfranchised by the elite classes in New Orleans. And provided food for their wives and children. Butler also had tickets made to give out food and had them given to the women.

My favorite is when he took the daughter/ex-enslaved of one wealthy slave owner on a tour of all his properties. She also had children by him, which so enraged Butler, his aid recalled, Butler had to go shut himself in his office. Anyway, she was starving, as were her children. Butler took her on tour of all the property owned by the father/owner/father of her children, and allowed her to pick which property she wanted to have signed over to her. She chose the family mansion to run as boarding house- earned a living that war post war.

There was just a lot of gnashing of teeth over the order to treat wealthy white women as prostitutes if they did not stop throwing the contents of chamber pots over the heads of his officers. It was a revolting, disgusting practice he had done everything he could think of to prevent. There had been no retaliation. Butler came from a family where no lady would think of doing such a repulsive thing, enemy or no- it really bugged the guy, plus no one in New Orleans seemed to understand this was war. The women could have gotten in a lot of trouble- he could have arrested them and did not. The uproar over the order was just absurd, and still is.

 

[GELongstreet]

... Butler came from a family where no lady would think of doing such a repulsive thing, enemy or no...

As the Confederates didn´t liberate and occupy Deerfield, NH or Lowell, MASS we can´t be sure of that, can we? Probably the ladies (or not?) of New Orleans weren´t considering said measure before the war, too.

 

[Drew]

Yes it certainly would've been interesting had Butler been captured. Would rebel officers really follow through and hang him? Depending who he was captured by, I don't think they would have.

Oh, I think they would have. See below:

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Richmond [Va.], December 24, 1862.

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 111.

I. The following proclamation of the President is published for the information and guidance of all concerned therein:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES.
A PROCLAMATION.

. . . .1

Now therefore, I Jefferson Davis, 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 be no longer considered or treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate 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 further order that no commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall be released on parole before exchange until the said Butler shall have met with due punishment for his crimes.

And whereas the hostilities waged against this Confederacy 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 balls and chains attached to their limbs, and are still so held in dungeons and fortresses. Others have been subjected 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 by 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 with loathsome rations that had been condemned 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.

Repeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering the inhabitants of the captured city by fines levied and exacted under threat of imprisoning recusants at hard labor with ball and chain.

The entire population of the city 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 invaders of their country.

Egress from the city has been refused to those whose fortitude withstood the test, 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 till their owners would consent to share the 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 guards of U.S. soldiers.

Where this partnership was refused armed expeditions have been sent to the plantations to rob them of everything 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 the owners and driven to wander helpless on the highway.

By a recent general order (No. 91) the entire property in that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River has been sequestrated for confiscation and officers have been assigned to duty with orders to "gather up and collect 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 U.S. Army; to collect together all the other personal property and bring the same to New Orleans and cause it to be sold at public auction to the 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 directed to be enforced through the agency of civil officials. And finally the African slaves have not only been excited to insurrection by every license and encouragement but numbers of them have actually been armed for a servile war–a war in its nature far exceeding in horrors the most merciless atrocities of the savages.

And whereas the officers under the 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 declaration signified not only his approval of the effort to excite servile war within the Confederacy but his intention to give aid and encouragement thereto if these independent States shall continue to refuse submission to a foreign power after the 1st day of January next, and has thus made known that all appeals to the laws of nations, the dictates of reason and the instincts of humanity would be addressed in vain to our enemies, and that they can be deterred from the commission of these crimes only by the terms of just retribution:

Now therefore I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America and acting by their authority, appealing 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 repressing 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 States do order–

1. 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.

2. That the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers in the army of said Butler be considered as only the instruments used for the commission of the crimes perpetrated by his orders and not as free agents; that they therefore be treated when capture as prisoners of war with kindness and humanity and be sent home on the usual parole that they will in no manner aid or serve the United States in any capacity during the continuance of this war unless duly exchanged.

3. 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 laws of said States.

4. That the like orders be executed in all cases with respect to all commissioned officers of the United States when found serving in company with armed slaves in insurrection against the authorities of the different 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 this 23d day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.

JEFF'N DAVIS.

By the President:
J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

II. Officers of the Army are charged with the observance and enforcement of the foregoing orders of the President. Where the evidence is not full or the case is for any reason of a doubtful character it will be referred through this office for the decision of the War Department.

By order:

S. COOPER
Adjutant and Inspector General.

 

[Bruce Vail]

Oh, I think they would have. See below:

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Richmond [Va.], December 24, 1862.

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 111.

I. The following proclamation of the President is published for the information and guidance of all concerned therein:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES.
A PROCLAMATION.

. . . .1

Now therefore, I Jefferson Davis, 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 be no longer considered or treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate 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 further order that no commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall be released on parole before exchange until the said Butler shall have met with due punishment for his crimes.

And whereas the hostilities waged against this Confederacy 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 balls and chains attached to their limbs, and are still so held in dungeons and fortresses. Others have been subjected 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 by 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 with loathsome rations that had been condemned 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.

Repeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering the inhabitants of the captured city by fines levied and exacted under threat of imprisoning recusants at hard labor with ball and chain.

The entire population of the city 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 invaders of their country.

Egress from the city has been refused to those whose fortitude withstood the test, 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 till their owners would consent to share the 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 guards of U.S. soldiers.

Where this partnership was refused armed expeditions have been sent to the plantations to rob them of everything 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 the owners and driven to wander helpless on the highway.

By a recent general order (No. 91) the entire property in that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River has been sequestrated for confiscation and officers have been assigned to duty with orders to "gather up and collect 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 U.S. Army; to collect together all the other personal property and bring the same to New Orleans and cause it to be sold at public auction to the 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 directed to be enforced through the agency of civil officials. And finally the African slaves have not only been excited to insurrection by every license and encouragement but numbers of them have actually been armed for a servile war–a war in its nature far exceeding in horrors the most merciless atrocities of the savages.

And whereas the officers under the 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 declaration signified not only his approval of the effort to excite servile war within the Confederacy but his intention to give aid and encouragement thereto if these independent States shall continue to refuse submission to a foreign power after the 1st day of January next, and has thus made known that all appeals to the laws of nations, the dictates of reason and the instincts of humanity would be addressed in vain to our enemies, and that they can be deterred from the commission of these crimes only by the terms of just retribution:

Now therefore I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America and acting by their authority, appealing 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 repressing 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 States do order–

1. 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.

2. That the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers in the army of said Butler be considered as only the instruments used for the commission of the crimes perpetrated by his orders and not as free agents; that they therefore be treated when capture as prisoners of war with kindness and humanity and be sent home on the usual parole that they will in no manner aid or serve the United States in any capacity during the continuance of this war unless duly exchanged.

3. 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 laws of said States.

4. That the like orders be executed in all cases with respect to all commissioned officers of the United States when found serving in company with armed slaves in insurrection against the authorities of the different 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 this 23d day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.

JEFF'N DAVIS.

By the President:
J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

II. Officers of the Army are charged with the observance and enforcement of the foregoing orders of the President. Where the evidence is not full or the case is for any reason of a doubtful character it will be referred through this office for the decision of the War Department.

By order:

S. COOPER
Adjutant and Inspector General.

Any Confederate officer in his right mind who had captured Butler would have seized on Section II and passed the buck up the chain of command. Summary execution of POWs, especially officers, was considered a war crime in those days...and still is!

 

[Bruce Vail]

Blanche Butler Ames, daughter of Gen. Butler.

Fortunately for her, her looks favored the mother rather than the father.

Students of the history of Mississippi will recognize her as an unpopular First Lady of that state. Her husband, Union army war hero Adalbert Ames, served as both appointed and elected Governor, but was basically run out of Mississippi by a resurgent Democratic Party in the 1870s.

There is a lot of good stuff to read about Adalbert and Blanche in The Bloody Shirt by Stephen Budiansky.

See the Budiansky book also for a stunning photo of Blanche (I could not make a decent copy myself and could not find one on the net). She was a strikingly beautiful woman.

 

[MRB1863]

Blanche Butler Ames, daughter of Gen. Butler.

Fortunately for her, her looks favored the mother rather than the father.

Students of the history of Mississippi will recognize her as an unpopular First Lady of that state. Her husband, Union army war hero Adalbert Ames, served as both appointed and elected Governor, but was basically run out of Mississippi by a resurgent Democratic Party in the 1870s.

There is a lot of good stuff to read about Adalbert and Blanche in The Bloody Shirt by Stephen Budiansky.

See the Budiansky book also for a stunning photo of Blanche (I could not make a decent copy myself and could not find one on the net). She was a strikingly beautiful woman.

She sure did not inherit her father's looks!

Thankfully!!!

 

[18thVirginia]

Oh, I think they would have. See below:

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,
Richmond [Va.], December 24, 1862.

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 111.

I. The following proclamation of the President is published for the information and guidance of all concerned therein:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES.
A PROCLAMATION.

. . . .1

Now therefore, I Jefferson Davis, 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 be no longer considered or treated simply as a public enemy of the Confederate 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 further order that no commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall be released on parole before exchange until the said Butler shall have met with due punishment for his crimes.

And whereas the hostilities waged against this Confederacy 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 balls and chains attached to their limbs, and are still so held in dungeons and fortresses. Others have been subjected 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 by 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 with loathsome rations that had been condemned 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.

Repeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering the inhabitants of the captured city by fines levied and exacted under threat of imprisoning recusants at hard labor with ball and chain.

The entire population of the city 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 invaders of their country.

Egress from the city has been refused to those whose fortitude withstood the test, 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 till their owners would consent to share the 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 guards of U.S. soldiers.

Where this partnership was refused armed expeditions have been sent to the plantations to rob them of everything 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 the owners and driven to wander helpless on the highway.

By a recent general order (No. 91) the entire property in that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River has been sequestrated for confiscation and officers have been assigned to duty with orders to "gather up and collect 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 U.S. Army; to collect together all the other personal property and bring the same to New Orleans and cause it to be sold at public auction to the 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 directed to be enforced through the agency of civil officials. And finally the African slaves have not only been excited to insurrection by every license and encouragement but numbers of them have actually been armed for a servile war–a war in its nature far exceeding in horrors the most merciless atrocities of the savages.

And whereas the officers under the 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 declaration signified not only his approval of the effort to excite servile war within the Confederacy but his intention to give aid and encouragement thereto if these independent States shall continue to refuse submission to a foreign power after the 1st day of January next, and has thus made known that all appeals to the laws of nations, the dictates of reason and the instincts of humanity would be addressed in vain to our enemies, and that they can be deterred from the commission of these crimes only by the terms of just retribution:

Now therefore I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America and acting by their authority, appealing 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 repressing 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 States do order–

1. 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.

2. That the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers in the army of said Butler be considered as only the instruments used for the commission of the crimes perpetrated by his orders and not as free agents; that they therefore be treated when capture as prisoners of war with kindness and humanity and be sent home on the usual parole that they will in no manner aid or serve the United States in any capacity during the continuance of this war unless duly exchanged.

3. 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 laws of said States.

4. That the like orders be executed in all cases with respect to all commissioned officers of the United States when found serving in company with armed slaves in insurrection against the authorities of the different 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 this 23d day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.

JEFF'N DAVIS.

By the President:
J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

II. Officers of the Army are charged with the observance and enforcement of the foregoing orders of the President. Where the evidence is not full or the case is for any reason of a doubtful character it will be referred through this office for the decision of the War Department.

By order:

S. COOPER
Adjutant and Inspector General.

Certainly, Jeff Davis needed a scapegoat for his decision to simply abandon the largest and most prosperous city in the Confederacy to the Yankees and found one in Benjamin Butler.

He was correct that the slaves did walk away from the plantations near New Orleans and into Union protection. Many of the large plantation owners feared uprisings by their slaves and left. Others had moved some of their slaves to Texas in anticipation of Union takeover in Louisiana and they had fled. Their slaves often loaded up carts with as much of the household belongings of the plantation as they could and drove themselves away. Undoubtedly, Jeff Davis was unhappy with the huge number of former slaves from Louisiana who enlisted in the USCT to fight against his regime.

But, how many women were killed under the Butler regime? How many saved from imminent starvation?

 

[SharonS]

I suspect Butler's actions in New Orleans would have seemed tame if they had come two years later, once the reality of war had fully set in.

 

[Aussie Billy Sherman]

I just can't see most of the top confederate officers making the call to hang him when captured. Lee wouldn't have done and definitely not Joe Johnston.

 

[Sid J.]

This may be a sourced quote from a book but I'm crying nonsense on how Butler is portrayed. This implies, if not outright states Butler was merely being political, refusing to return enslaved- and slips in information he offered to use his troops to quell a slave uprising. It is crafted in a way to make it clear Butler is that guy, in this publication, the unlovely, much hated persona reviled in song and legend.

Were generals allowed to haul off and offer help ( especially Union generals ) to go quell slave uprisings? One would imagine this would be a Southerner, owning enslaved, having trouble with those pesky people continually wanting their freedom. So- a Union general hears of this Southern slave owner in difficulties ( a New England general toboot ) and offers United States enlisted men ( who joined ' The Union Forever ' ) to go forcibly stuff the enslaved back into their little, cute slave cabins? It just sounds extremely, extremely unlikely.

Rose's book hardly mentions Butler at all, really just this one paragraph, and then one more in the later chapters which is a general quote from an 1863 article by Butler "The old house was good enough for me, but as they have pulled down the L part, I propose, when we build it up, to build it up with all the modern improvements." I included the quote as a statement of how little Rose actually says about Butler, in stark contrast with earlier comments that Butler was "best explained by Willie Lee Rose in her book, Rehearsal for Reconstruction. " Rose speaks about the large impact the "contraband" legal construct, first developed by Butler, had on her topic, the Port Royal Experiment, and actually says very little about Butler himself. Of much more importance to Rose's work is Edward L Pierce, one of the principal personages in the Port Royal Experiment and writer of "The Contrabands at Fortress Monroe," a November 1861 article in Atlantic Monthly, and the expansion of Butler's initial legal opinion by broad acceptance, popular usage, and most importantly, acts of Congress.

A more recent account of the events at Fortress Monroe that May is "How Slavery Really Ended in America."

 

[Sid J.]

I've posted this one several times before, but it is a colorful period description of Butler's "attributes":

"General Gillmore commands this corps and General Butler commands the Department. While at Gloucester Point, the latter held a grand review of the 10th Army Corps. He had a very brilliant looking staff of officers accompanying him. I got an excellent view of this very properly distinguished "Beast" and I assure you I think he bears out the title the Rebels or Confederates have given him both as regards appearance and character, namely "Beast Butler". I rode on the caisson within a yard or two of him, and as he raised his hat as I was passing (a mark of deserved deference to myself no doubt) I saw him distinctly, and can recognize him anywhere I may see him again. Call before your mental vision a sack full of muck (well filled and shaken together mind) placed on a beautiful charger (no humbug about that). And on top of this imagine a bloated looking bladder of lard, dressed around with oakum but polished on top; a cock-eye and ferocious looking mustache in front. And then imagine four enormous German sausages fixed to the extremities of the sack in lieu of arms and legs, and you have before you a fancy portrait of Major General Butler."

My Dear Parents; The Civil War as Seen by an English Union Soldier by James Horrocks edited by AS Lewis; HArcourt Brace Jovanovich 1982.

page 77

 

[Bee]

Call before your mental vision a sack full of muck (well filled and shaken together mind) placed on a beautiful charger (no humbug about that). And on top of this imagine a bloated looking bladder of lard, dressed around with oakum but polished on top; a cock-eye and ferocious looking mustache in front. And then imagine four enormous German sausages fixed to the extremities of the sack in lieu of arms and legs, and you have before you a fancy portrait of Major General Butler."

Well, never thought I would say it: Perhaps there are benefits to being visually impaired! I don't see individual features well enough to produce this sort of, um, description, thus, everyman is a George Clooney until proven otherwise

 

[Drew]

I just can't see most of the top confederate officers making the call to hang him when captured. Lee wouldn't have done and definitely not Joe Johnston.

You didn't read my post at #44. President Davis ordered it. Whether Robert Lee would have hanged Butler is a good question, but the later was in New Orleans and not Virginia when the order was issued.

It was showmanship, IMO, but if Butler had got caught, they would have strung him up. Not much question about this.

 

[NedBaldwin]

Were generals allowed to haul off and offer help ....

Butler didnt always worry himself about what was allowed.

It just sounds extremely, extremely unlikely.

Butler does sounds unlikely: he was a Massachusetts politician who voted for Jefferson Davis to be the nominee at the 1860 Democratic Convention and voted for Breckenridge in the 1860 election.

In April 1861 when Butler commanded the troops in Annapolis Maryland, there was a rumor that there would be a slave uprising. Butler wrote to the Governor of Maryland to offer to help put down the uprising if it happened. The letter is in the Official Records and also in Butler's autobiography.

 

[civilken]

I find beast Butler quite an interesting individual from his thoughts on slavery to the ladies of Louisiana and I would pay good money for one of those chamber pots. So in general spoons wherever you are rest well..

 

[LoriAnn]

Don't know much about the man yet but thought I'd add this recent article to his thread...

June 5, 2016
The Virginian~Pilot

"More than two dozen people gathered in Chesapeake on Memorial Day to honor African American veterans of the Civil War."

"When Gen. Butler gave up command of the Army of the James in January 1865, he specifically honored the U.S.Colored Troops in his farewell address. Robert O. Johnson Jr. shared this passage from Butler's speech during the Memorial Day event:

To the Colored Troops of the Army of the James – In this army you have been treated not as laborers, but as soldiers. You have shown yourselves worthy of the uniform you wear. The best officers of the Union seek to command you. Your bravery has won the admiration even of those who would be your masters. Your patriotism, fidelity and courage have illustrated the best qualities of manhood. With the bayonet you have unlocked the iron-barred gates of prejudice, opening new fields of freedom, liberty and equality of rights to yourselves and to your race forever."

pilotonline.com

 

[DBF]

My favorite Benjamin Butler story comes from the diary of Mary Boykin Chestnut. Of course she always called him the "Beast" Butler, but as she writes after meeting a Mrs. Lyon's, the wife of Colonel Penn, who is a Yankee prison: "She had a little son with her, barely two years old, a mere infant. She said to him, "Faites comme Butler." The child crossed his eyes and made himself hideous, then laughed and rioted around as if he enjoyed the joke hugely." So it seems they were trying to make the best they could out of a "beastly" man.

 

[jgoodguy]

Butler was actually a pretty good guy if you were black and living in the 19th century. He did a number of good deeds on behalf of contraband during the war and freedpeople after, and his outrageous conduct seems to have been at least partially provoked by sincere rage at the way Southerners treated their slaves. He was also apparently a good family man.

He had the misfortune of being extremely funny looking, and he pulled a couple of idiot moves that were hard to forget - order no. 40 was just one of them.

Butler by declaring slaves to be contraband, cut the Gordian Knot of the legality of ending slavery by agreeing with slave owners that blacks were property and then confiscating them as contraband of war.

 

[Mark Roth]

It was showmanship, IMO, but if Butler had got caught, they would have strung him up. Not much question about this.

Just like they always followed the same proclamation's orders demanding that Black troops never be treated as POWs?

If nothing else, the fear of reprisals would have limited most, if not all, officers willingness to summarily hang a general or his senior officers.