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Benjamin Franklin Butler (November 5, 1818 - January 11, 1893)
Born in Deerfield, NH, Butler was the son of Capt. John Butler,
who served under Andrew Jackson at New Orleans during the War of 1812. Butler was a lawyer and politian. He
graduated from Waterville College (now Colby university), Maine, in 1838, was admitted to the bar in 1840,
and began practice in Lowell, Massachusetts the following year. He was a powerful and highly regarded lawyer, particularly in
criminal cases. Butler was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1853, and to the State
Senate in 1859. He also served as a delegate to the Democratic National Conventions from 1848 to 1860.
Prior to the American Civil War, Butler was a third lieutenant in the Massachusetts Militia. He was promoted to
brigadier general of the militia in 1855. These particular ranks were closely associated with his political positions
and Butler received little practical military experience to prepare him for the coming conflict. In April of 1861,
Butler marched to Annapolis with the 8th Massachusetts regiment, and was placed in command of the district of Annapolis,
which included the City of Baltimore.
In May of 1861, Butler led the 900 men under his command into Baltimore, taking the city for occupation without opposition.
Several days later, he was promoted to the rank of major general, and assigned to the command of Fort Monroe in Virginia.
During that time, several slave owners demanded the return of slaves which had come within the area commanded by Butler.
He refused to return the slaves to their former owners on the grounds that the slaves were contraband of war, thereby
originating the designation of "contrabands" as applied to slaves during the rest of the war.
With respect to the conduct of tactical military operations, Butler was generally considered to be a failure.
His first action at Big Bethel, Virginia in 1861 resulted in a humiliating defeat for the Union Army. However, later that year
Butler commanded an expeditionary force that (in conjunction with the U.S. Navy), took Fort Hatteras and Fort Clark in
North Carolina. Following the victory at Fort Hatteras, Butler returned to Massachusetts to recruit an expedition for the
gulf of Mexico and the Mississippi. In May 1862, he commanded the force that occupied New Orleans after it was captured
by the Navy. Butler administered New Orleans with firmness and severity. As a result, New Orleans was regarded as a relatively healthy
and orderly city during the Butler regime. However, many of his actions proved highly controverial. Examples include the seizure of a large sum of money that had been deposited in the office of the Dutch consul (the U.S. government in Washington later ordered the return of the money to the Dutch government), and his involvement in the hanging William Mumford for having taken down the United States flag which had been placed by Admiral Farragut on the United States Mint in New Orleans.
Perhaps Butler's most notorious act was the issuance of "Order No. 28" which
was intended to prevent women from insulting or showing contempt for soldiers. The order proclaimed that such action would
result in a woman being held liable, and to be treated as a "woman of the town plying her avocation", (that is, a prostitute).
This order caused protests in not only in the North and the South, but also abroad, particularly in England and
France, and it was likely the cause of Butler's removal from command of the Department of the Gulf in December of 1862. At
the same time, and as a result of Butler's troubled command in New Orleans, Confederate President Jefferson Davis
in General Order 111 declared Butler to be "a felon deserving capital punishment", who if captured should be reserved for execution.
Near the end of 1863 Butler was placed in command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. During a two year
period, his largly ineffectual military efforts (especially Butler's failures in an 1864 offensive near Richmond in
an area called the Bermuda Hundred, and a mismanaged expedition against Fort Fisher in North Carolina late in 1864)
overcame Butler's strong politcal connections, and he was removed from command by General Grant. Butler then returned
to his residence in Massachusetts.
Following the Civil War, Butler served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and one of the managers
selected by the House to conduct the unsuccessful trial of impeachment of President Johnson,
opening the case and taking the most prominent part in it. He served as Governor of Massachusetts from 1883-1884,
and received more than 175,000 votes during an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1884. He died while attending
court in Washington, D.C. in 1893.
The final resting place of Benjamin Franklin Butler can be found in the Hildredth Cemetery on Hildreth Street in Lowell, Massachusetts.
Note that Butler's grave is found inside the gated and locked section of the cemetery known as the Hildreth Family Cemetery.
His grave site can be viewed from approximately 20 feet away behind the fence which separates the public and private portions
of the cemetery, approximately 80 feet in front of the grave site of Butler's famous son-in-law Adelbert Ames.
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