Benjamin Butler

For the 19th century Attorney General of the United States, see Benjamin Franklin Butler (lawyer)

Benjamin Franklin Butler

Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 – January 11, 1893) was an American lawyer, politician, and one of the most controversial "political generals" of the American Civil War.

Early life

Butler was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire, the son of Captain John Butler, who served under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 Battle of New Orleans. After the death of his father, his mother operated a boarding house in Lowell, Massachusetts. He attended Waterville College (now Colby College) in Maine and graduated in 1838. He was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1840, began practice at Lowell, and soon attained distinction as a lawyer, particularly in criminal cases. He married Sarah Hildreth, a stage actress and daughter of Dr. Israel Hildreth of Lowell, in 1842. (Their daughter married Adelbert Ames, who would become a prominent U.S. Army general during the Civil War).

Entering politics as a Democrat, Butler first attracted general attention by his vigorous campaign in Lowell in advocacy of the passage of a law establishing a ten-hour day for laborers. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853, and of the Massachusetts Senate in 1859, and was a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions from 1848 to 1860. In the convention of 1860 at Charleston he advocated the nomination of Jefferson Davis (voting for him on the first 57 ballots) and opposed Stephen A. Douglas, and in the ensuing campaign he supported John C. Breckinridge. His military career prior to the Civil War began as a third lieutenant in the Massachusetts Militia in 1839; he was promoted to brigadier general of the militia in 1855. These ranks were closely associated with his political positions and Butler received little practical military experience to prepare him for the coming conflict.

Civil War

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Benjamin Franklin Butler

Governor John A. Andrew sent Butler with a force of Massachusetts troops to reopen communication between the Union states and Washington, D.C. A major railroad connection from the Northeast passed through Baltimore and immediately after the start of the war it was unclear whether Maryland would stay in the Union. Butler arrived with the 8th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment by steamer at Annapolis on April 20, 1861. He employed his expert negotiation skills with the Governor of Maryland and by April 22 his regiment had disembarked and was put to work repairing damaged railroad tracks around Baltimore. At the same time the 7th New York Infantry arrived and Butler assumed command of the entire force; his military career would be characterized by his eagerness to assume authority in the absence of official instructions. While Butler remained at Annapolis, the New Yorkers were the first Union troops to march into Washington following President Lincoln's initial call for volunteers. On May 13, Butler's remaining force occupied Baltimore without opposition. Lincoln appointed him the first major general of U.S. Volunteers, ranking from May 16, 1861.

Assigned command of Fort Monroe in Virginia, Butler declined to return to their owners fugitive slaves who had come within his lines, on the ground that, as laborers for fortifications, and so on, they were contraband of war, thus originating the phrase contraband as applied to African-Americans. In the conduct of tactical operations Butler was almost uniformly unsuccessful, and his first action at Big Bethel, Virginia, was a humiliating defeat for the Union Army. He was also head of the Department of Virginia.

Later in 1861 Butler commanded an expeditionary force that, in conjunction with the U.S. Navy, took Forts Hatteras and Clark in North Carolina. In May 1862 he commanded the force that occupied New Orleans after it was captured by the Navy. In the administration of that city he showed great firmness and severity. New Orleans was unusually healthy and orderly during the Butler regime. Many of his acts, however, gave great offense, such as the seizure of $800,000 that had been deposited in the office of the Dutch consul. Most notorious was an order on May 15, issued after some provocation, that if any woman should insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and shall be held liable to be treated as a "woman of the town plying her avocation", i.e., a prostitute. This order provoked protests both in the North and the South, and also abroad, particularly in England and France, and it was doubtless the cause of his removal from command of the Department of the Gulf on December 17, 1862.

On June 1 he had executed one William B. Mumford, who had torn down a United States flag placed by Admiral Farragut on the United States Mint in New Orleans; for this execution he was denounced (December 1862) by Confederate President Jefferson Davis in General Order 111 as a felon deserving capital punishment, who if captured should be reserved for execution.

In November 1863 Butler commanded the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, and in May 1864 the forces under his command were designated the Army of the James. He was ordered to attack in the direction of Petersburg from the east, destroying the rail links supplying Richmond and distracting Robert E. Lee, in conjunction with attacks from the north by Ulysses S. Grant. Grant had little use for Butler's military skills, but Butler had strong political connections that kept him in positions beyond his competence. Rather than striking immediately at Petersburg as ordered, Butler's offensive bogged down east of Richmond in the area called Bermuda Hundred, immobilized by the greatly inferior force of Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, and he was unable to accomplish any of his assigned objectives. But it was his mismanagement of the expedition against Fort Fisher, North Carolina, that finally led to his recall by General Grant in December. He resigned his commission November 30, 1865.

Post war years

Butler was a Republican representative in the U.S. Congress from 1867 to 1879, except from 1875 to 1877; i.e., the 40th, 41st, 42nd, 43rd and 45th Congresses. Despite his pre-war allegiance as a Democrat, in Congress he was conspicuous as a Radical Republican in Reconstruction legislation, and wrote the 1871 Ku Klux Klan Act. He was one of the managers selected by the House to conduct the unsuccessful trial of impeachment, before the Senate, of President Johnson, opening the case and taking the most prominent part in it. He exercised a marked influence over President Grant and was regarded as his spokesman in the House. He was one of the foremost advocates of the payment in greenbacks of the government bonds. During his time in the House, he served as chairman of the Committee on Revision of the Laws in the 42nd Congress and the Committee on the Judiciary in the 43rd Congress.

In 1872, Butler was among the several high-profile investors who were deceived by Philip Arnold in a famous diamond and gemstone hoax.

Butler ran unsuccessfully for governor of Massachusetts as an independent in 1878, and also in 1879 when he ran on the Democratic and Greenback tickets, but in 1882 he was elected by the Democrats, who won no other state offices. From 1883 to 1884 he was Governor of Massachusetts. As presidential nominee of the Greenback and Anti-Monopoly parties, he polled 175,370 votes in the presidential election of 1884. He had bitterly opposed the nomination by the Democratic party of Grover Cleveland and tried to defeat him by throwing his own votes in Massachusetts and New York to the Republican candidate.

Butler's professional income as a lawyer was estimated at $100,000 per annum shortly before his death. He was an able but erratic administrator and soldier, and a brilliant lawyer. As a politician he excited bitter opposition, and was charged, apparently with justice, with corruption and venality in conniving at and sharing the profits of illicit trade with the Confederates carried on by his brother at New Orleans and by his brother-in-law in the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, while General Butler was in command.

Butler died while attending court in Washington, D.C. He is buried in his wife's family plot in Hildreth Cemetery, Lowell, Massachusetts.

References

• Butler, Benjamin F., The Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General B. F. Butler: Butlers Book (New York, 1893).
• Catton, Bruce, The Coming Fury: The Centennial History of the Civil War, Volume 1, Doubleday, 1961, ISBN 0641685254.
• Eicher, John H., & Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Parton, James, Butler in New Orleans, 1863.
• Summers, Mark Wahlgren, Rum, Romanism & Rebellion: The Making of a President, 1884, 2000.
• Trefousse, Hans L., Ben Butler: The South Called Him Beast!, 1957.
• Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1964, ISBN 0-8071-0882-7.
• Butler biography at Famous Americans website
• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
•  This article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

External links

• Story of the bust of Butler at the Smithsonian Institution