What? Butler wasnt popular?

[General Butler]

Thought you may find it fascinating to to see how Puck viewed our new friend Ben Butler.
I may be wrong but I think Puck was agai st him.
Note that ome of these is in German!

 

[A. Roy]

Not very flattering!

Roy B.

 

[General Butler]

Not very flattering!

Roy B.

Ya, he had his detractors until they got into legal trouble, then they all called on Ben to save their bacon

 

[John Hartwell]

I like this one:

In 1884, Butler appeals for the nomination as candidate of the Womens' Rights Party. Dressed as a clown, holding a paddle labelled "Demagogism," and trailing a string of sausages representing other 'parties' that had nominated him: "Greenback," "Convict Party," "Tewksbury Pauper," "Women's Sufferage," "His own Party." Feminist Belva Lockwood emerges through a hole in the stage floor carrying over her head a scroll announcing the "Nomination for Pres."

This wasn't the first time Puck saw Ben as a Clown. Earlier that same year, when Grover Cleveland received the Independent

Democratic nomination, we find clown Ben and the "Tammany Indian" in tears. Here, too, the string of sausages labeled "Tammany's Nomination," "Women's Suffrage Nomination," "Tewkesbury Pauper Nomination," "Convict Party Nomination," "Greenback Nomination," and "Butler's Nomination".

 

[General Butler]

I like this one:
View attachment 371567In 1884, Butler appeals for the nomination as candidate of the Womens' Rights Party. Dressed as a clown, holding a paddle labelled "Demagogism," and trailing a string of sausages representing other 'parties' that had nominated him: "Greenback," "Convict Party," "Tewksbury Pauper," "Women's Sufferage," "His own Party." Feminist Belva Lockwood emerges through a hole in the stage floor carrying over her head a scroll announcing the "Nomination for Pres."

This wasn't the first time Puck saw Ben as a Clown. Earlier that same year, when Grover Cleveland received the Independent
View attachment 371568 Democratic nomination, we find clown Ben and the "Tammany Indian" in tears. Here, too, the string of sausages labeled "Tammany's Nomination," "Women's Suffrage Nomination," "Tewkesbury Pauper Nomination," "Convict Party Nomination," "Greenback Nomination," and "Butler's Nomination".

Yep both solid examples of the love the industry had for Ben..well done. There is a very rare political toy that has Belva as a full cardboard stern woman and when you turn it over there is Ben under her skirts

 

[John Hartwell]

The "Tewksburier" image above:

actually references what was probably the finest achievement of Butler's one year as Governor of Massachusetts. There was a major scandal that started many years before his election, regarding mismanagement and abuse at the Tewksbury, Mass. Almshouse. When he took office one of the first things he did was to ask Clara Barton to go to Tewksbury and take charge. She was very busy, but reluctantly agreed as a personal favor to Butler, who had been very supportive of her wartime work. She went through the Almshouse like a whirlwind, cleared out the corrupt management, improved its finances, and the conditions and morale of both inmates and staff, within five months making the institution, for a time the finest and most progressive of its kind in the country.

For this effort, Butler was called a Demagog, appealing to the "pauper vote," and celebrated his defeat the following year.

 

[General Butler]

The "Tewksburier" image above:
View attachment 371569 actually references what was probably the finest achievement of Butler's one year as Governor of Massachusetts. There was a major scandal that started many years before his election, regarding mismanagement and abuse at the Tewksbury, Mass. Almshouse. When he took office one of the first things he did was to ask Clara Barton to go to Tewksbury and take charge. She was very busy, but reluctantly agreed as a personal favor to Butler, who had been very supportive of her wartime work. She went through the Almshouse like a whirlwind, cleared out the corrupt management, improved its finances, and the conditions and morale of both inmates and staff, within five months making the institution, for a time the finest and most progressive of its kind in the country.

For this effort, Butler was called a Demagog, appealing to the "pauper vote," and celebrated his defeat the following year.

View attachment 371570​

Ok so tell me. Why do you have Butler items or interest?
The report was scathing. I have a copy.
They actually found evidence of items such as slippers having been made from inmate skin...they even have a drawing of it
Shades of horrors to come

 

[John Hartwell]

Ok so tell me. Why do you have Butler items or interest?
The report was scathing. I have a copy.
They actually found evidence of items such as slippers having been made from inmate skin...they even have a drawing of it
Shades of horrors to come

I've been interested in Ben Butler for 40 years. He's a fascinating study. What struck me most was the rabid hatred he inspired in both southern rebels and Boston Brahmins --that, in itself, is telling. It has deeply poisoned his memory in history. Even today there's a widespread reluctance to see anything positive in the man at all -- despite his very real and positive accomplishments.

While certainly not ignoring his faults, and they were many (in some ways he was his own worst enemy), I've always tried to point out the "other side" his many detractors, with their monotonous negativism, have always denied him.

His Almshouse report is, indeed, scathing (though I have to be skeptical about those slippers); and the abuses had been going on for 20 years before Ben became governor. Of course, he was ridiculed for organizing the clean-up.

 

[ConfederateCanuck]

I wonder what Southern Ladies called him after he issued his infamous decree to stop them from insulting his troops....hmmmm....I doubt it was very flattering.

 

[General Butler]

I wonder what Southern Ladies called him after he issued his infamous decree to stop them from insulting his troops....hmmmm....I doubt it was very flattering.

I doubt the words they used behind the doors of their fancy lairs were very unladylike...but the insults stopped

 

[General Butler]

I've been interested in Ben Butler for 40 years. He's a fascinating study. What struck me most was the rabid hatred he inspired in both southern rebels and Boston Brahmins --that, in itself, is telling. It has deeply poisoned his memory in history. Even today there's a widespread reluctance to see anything positive in the man at all -- despite his very real and positive accomplishments.

While certainly not ignoring his faults, and they were many (in some ways he was his own worst enemy), I've always tried to point out the "other side" his many detractors, with their monotonous negativism, have always denied him.

His Almshouse report is, indeed, scathing (though I have to be skeptical about those slippers); and the abuses had been going on for 20 years before Ben became governor. Of course, he was ridiculed for organizing the clean-up.

Just imagine if you will if he had not been cross eyed, not been an orphan and knew when he had said enough?
If course those things wouldn't have made Ben Ben.
A great man for his time and like all men...all men...he had his flaws. Inky small minds focus on the flaws or those that take the easy path through history.
Like my grandfather used to say. They never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.

 

[John Hartwell]

I wonder what Southern Ladies called him after he issued his infamous decree to stop them from insulting his troops....hmmmm....I doubt it was very flattering.

Ah, the infamous "Woman Order."

[Harper's Weekly, 12 July 1862]​

Outrageous behavior immediately quelled by no more than the threat of ... public embarrassment. Within a day "there was a miraculous change in the deportment of the ladies of the Crescest City," as one witness put it. While Gen. Beauregard put his own "horrible construction" on Order No. 28, his sister, a resident of New Orleans, had neither "interest in" nor "objection to the order," adding "It does not apply to me." She was not one of the coarse women behaving shamefully in public, so she had no reason to fear its effects. Other NOLA women echoed their "disdain of inappropriate behavior in public streets as unworthy of their own position in society." But, in comparison to Butler's other acts, "this was the one that humiliated us," by impeaching their own misbehavior. The propaganda of outrage that burst from the southern press and politicians quickly spread to Europe, and among some elements in the north, and remains eloquent to this day. Suffice it to say that unladylike behavior in public ended immediately. And there is no record of a southern woman being abused or insulted as a result of Butler's infamous Order.

For an objective review of the subject, I suggest "The Unmeaning Twaddle about Order 28: Benjamin F. Butler and Confederate Women in Occupied New Orleans, 1862," by Jacqueline G. Campbell, Journal of the Civil War Era, Vol. 2, No. 1 (MARCH 2012), pp. 11-30. It can be read for free online at:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26070190?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

"Unmeaning twaddle," btw, was how one New Orleans lady described the vociferous outrage expressed over the Woman Order.

 

[General Butler]

Ah, the infamous "Woman Order."

View attachment 371631
[Harper's Weekly, 12 July 1862]​

Outrageous behavior immediately quelled by no more than the threat of ... public embarrassment. Within a day "there was a miraculous change in the deportment of the ladies of the Crescest City," as one witness put it. While Gen. Beauregard put his own "horrible construction" on Order No. 28, his sister, a resident of New Orleans, had neither "interest in" nor "objection to the order," adding "It does not apply to me." She was not one of the coarse women behaving shamefully in public, so she had no reason to fear its effects. Other NOLA women echoed their "disdain of inappropriate behavior in public streets as unworthy of their own position in society." But, in comparison to Butler's other acts, "this was the one that humiliated us," by impeaching their own misbehavior. The propaganda of outrage that burst from the southern press and politicians quickly spread to Europe, and among some elements in the north, and remains eloquent to this day. Suffice it to say that unladylike behavior in public ended immediately. And there is no record of a southern woman being abused or insulted as a result of Butler's infamous Order.

For an objective review of the subject, I suggest "The Unmeaning Twaddle about Order 28: Benjamin F. Butler and Confederate Women in Occupied New Orleans, 1862," by Jacqueline G. Campbell, Journal of the Civil War Era, Vol. 2, No. 1 (MARCH 2012), pp. 11-30. It can be read for free online at:

https://www.jstor.org/stable/26070190?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

"Unmeaning twaddle," btw, was how one New Orleans lady described the vociferous outrage expressed over the Woman Order.

You must have quite the Butler collection.jeff davis raised the black flag over Butler when order 28 was issued meaning kill on sight.

 

[JPK Huson 1863]

What baffles me is you'll still get outrage over Butler insisting women stop dumping human ick over his officer's heads. Like out of an entire war, that order on his part insisting on decency was the grossest indecency he could inflict on womankind?

Faux outrage is my favorite kind, however.

 

[ConfederateCanuck]

What baffles me is you'll still get outrage over Butler insisting women stop dumping human ick over his officer's heads. Like out of an entire war, that order on his part insisting on decency was the grossest indecency he could inflict on womankind?

Faux outrage is my favorite kind, however.

We Southern Gents don't like our women-folk to be treated in such a Yankee-like way....bahaha!!

 

[General Butler]

What baffles me is you'll still get outrage over Butler insisting women stop dumping human ick over his officer's heads. Like out of an entire war, that order on his part insisting on decency was the grossest indecency he could inflict on womankind?

Faux outrage is my favorite kind, however.

Faux outrage is easy and cheap and requires no facts and even less research.

 

[General Butler]

We Southern Gents don't like our women-folk to be treated in such a Yankee-like way....bahaha!!

Yes you treat your women so nicely...get me this...go do that...

 

[ConfederateCanuck]

Yes you treat your women so nicely...get me this...go do that...

We'd like them to polish the silverware too, but "Spoons" Butler already acquired all of it....for the war effort, no doubt. I heard there was a shortage of mess kits for the Yank troops. (just having some fun banter, no offence intended )

 

[General Butler]

We'd like them to polish the silverware too, but "Spoons" Butler already acquired all of it....for the war effort, no doubt. I heard there was a shortage of mess kits for the Yank troops. (just having some fun banter, no offence intended )

YEARS ago just missed buying Butlers mess kit that John Dugan sold for Francis Lord...it now resides with the NPS at Ft. Monroe. I have a great pamphlet writing in the 1940s by LSU and they investigation showed the so-called Butler silver that was passed along to Genl Banks during the transition and when Banks left the silver was gone

 

[ConfederateCanuck]

YEARS ago just missed buying Butlers mess kit that John Dugan sold for Francis Lord...it now resides with the NPS at Ft. Monroe. I have a great pamphlet writing in the 1940s by LSU and they investigation showed the so-called Butler silver that was passed along to Genl Banks during the transition and when Banks left the silver was gone

Sorry, I didn't understand....did they conclude that Butler took it with him or that Banks took the horde from Butler?