THE REBELLIOUS SPIRIT IN NEW ORLEANS. 349 system of cleanliness for the promotion of the health of the citizens, before unknown to them, and which is yet in successful operation. On his arrival ribald voices in the crowd on the levee had cried out, "Wait till Yellow Jack [yellow fever] comes, old Cock-eye! He'll make you fly!" But "Yellow Jack" was not allowed to come; and that terrible scourge has not appeared in New Orleans since General Butler made it clean, and taught the inhabitants to keep it so. Residents there declared to the author, when he visited that city in the spring of 1866, that gratitude for incalculable blessings should prompt the inhabitants to erect a statue of General Butler in one of the public squares, in testimony of their appreciation of a real benefactor. General Butler organized plans for the alleviation of the distress among the inhabitants, and invited the civil authorities to unite with him in the merciful work. But they were deaf to the voice of righteousness. Withholding relief from their starving fellow-citizens, they sent provisions to the camps of the insurgents who had fled from the city. In every possible way attempts were made to thwart the orders and wishes of General Butler while he was feeding the starving poor by thousands, and was working day and night to revive and restore the business of the city, that its wonted prosperity might return. Among his troops there was perfect order. No man had been injured, and no woman had been treated with the least disrespect. But the corrupt Mayor was surly and insolent. The newspapers were barely restrained from seditious teachings. The foreign consuls, and foreign population generally, sympathized with the spirit of resistance; and many of the women who claimed to be of the better sort, taking advantage of the wide Latitude in speech and action allowed to their sex in American society, were particularly offensive in their manifestations of contempt for the General and his troops. When Union officers approached, they would leave the sidewalks, go round them in the middle of the street, and with upturned noses would utter some insulting words, often more vigorous than elegant. They would draw away their skirts when a private soldier passed them, and leave street cars and church pews when Union officers entered them. They wore secession colors on their bonnets; in feminine schools they kept the pupils singing rebel songs; groups on balconies turned their backs on passing soldiers, and played airs that were used with rebellious words; and in every conceivable way they insulted the troops. These things were patiently borne, as sensible men endure the acts of imbeciles or lunatics, notwithstanding they were indicative of the hellish spirit that was making war on the Government and the rights of man; and the follies of these deluded women were the subjects of much merriment among the troops. But when, at length, a woman of the "dominant class," with the low manners of the degraded of her sex, deliberately spat in the face of two officers, who were walking peacefully along the street, General Butler determined to arrest the growing evil at once, and on the 15th of May the town was startled by an order that struck the root of the iniquity, by placing such actors in their appropriate social position. absolute disposal of the most godless, brutal, ignorant, and ruthless ruffianism the world has ever heard of since the days of the great Roman conspirators." 1 See Butler's Order, May 9, 1862. 350 BUTLER'S "WOMAN ORDER." That order was intended to work silently, peacefully, and effectually. And so it did. The grave offense was not repeated. Sensible and virtuous women did not indulge in such vulgarities, and were not touched by the order. The foolish women recovered their senses through its operation; and so did the Mayor and his accomplices in crime, when the power of their outraged Government was felt by the former, by arrest and threatened imprisonment in Fort Jackson; by Soulé, the ablest of the instigators of treason in Louisiana, as a prisoner in Fort Warren; and by one of the leaders of the mob, when he stood a felon on the scaffold, in the midst of a vast number of his fellow-citizens, because of his overt act of treason in pulling down the National flag from the Government Mint.3 The Mayor had made the publication of the "Woman Order" the occasion of a most impudent and absurd letter to General Butler, saying, among other things, "Your officers and soldiers are permitted by the terms of this order to place any construction they may please upon the conduct of our wives and daughters, and upon such construction to offer them atrocious insults."4 This letter was answered by the deposition and arrest of the The following is a copy of the document known as the Woman Order," which the General himself framed from a similar one, and for a similar purpose, which he had read long before in a London newspaper: "HEAD-QUARTERS, Department of the GULF, NEW ORLEANS, May 15, 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. "By command of "GEORGE C. STRONG, Assistant Adjutant-General, Chief of Staff.” "MAJOR-GENERAL BUTLER, 2 Mr. Parton says that one of the women-" a very fine lady "--who lost her senses and behaved indiscreetly, and who, in sweeping her skirts away from possible contact with passing Union officers, lost her balance, fell in the gutter, and received the proffered aid of one of them, which she spurned, afterward declared that she really felt grateful to the officer at the time for his politeness, and added, “Order 28 [the Woman Order'] served the women right." See page 343. . The This willful perversion of the plain letter and spirit of the "Woman Order" was made the key-note of a cry of indignation that was heard in every part of the Confederacy, and was echoed by the friends of the conspirators in the North and in Europe. "Do not leave your women to the merciless foe," appealed "The daughters of New Orleans" to "every Southern soldier." "Rather let us die with you, oh, our fathers! Rather, like Virginius, plunge your swords into our breasts, saying, This is all we can give our daughters."" Governor of Louisiana said: "It was reserved for a Federal general to invite his soldiers to the perpetration of outrages, at the mention of which the blood recoils with horror." A Georgian offered a reward of $10,000 "for the infamous Butler's head;" and "A Savannah Woman" suggested a contribution "from every woman in the Confederacy "to triple the sum." Paul R. Hayne, the South Carolina poet, was again inspired to write nonsense (see page 104, volume I.), and said : "Yes! but there's one who shall not die In battle harness! One for whom Lurks in the darkness silently Another and a sterner doom! A warrior's end should crown the brave For him, swift cord! and felon grave!" Lord Palmerston, the British premier, in the plenitude of his admiration for the insurgents, and remembering "how savages in red coats had been wont to conduct themselves in captured cities" on the Peninsula, and naturally supposed that “patriots in blue coats would follow their example," made himself appear exceedingly absurd before the world by mentioning the matter in Parliament, and saying, “ An Englishman must blush to think that such an act has been committed by one belonging to the Anglo-Saxon race." Beauregard, whose wife and mother, living in the house of John Slidell, in New Orleans, were there treated in the most tender and respectful manner by the commanding general, first applied to that officer, it is said, the vulgar epithet of "Butler the Beast," and it was freely used by every enemy of the Government, South and North, until the end of the strife. TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF A TRAITOR. 351 Mayor,' and the appointment of General G. F. Shepley, of Maine, as Military Governor of New Orleans, who at once organized an efficient police force and made the city a model of quiet and good order. This vigor was followed by the arrest of William B. Mumford, his trial and conviction by a military court, and his execution as a traitor in the presence of a vast multitude, who quietly dispersed to their homes, with the salutary reflection that the Government had indeed repossessed" its property, and was exercising its rightful authority in the city of New Orleans.' 66 GEORGE F. SHEPLEY. Of the details of General Butler's administration in the Department of the Gulf, until he was superseded by General Banks, at the middle of December following-how he dealt with representatives of foreign governments; with banks and bankers; with the holders of Confederate money and other property; and with disloyal men of every kind, from the small offender in the street to the greater offender in public positions and in the pulpit-it is not our province here to consider. Suffice it to say, that it then seemed wise and salutary in the necessary assertion of the sovereign authority of his Government; and, to the candid student of events there, it yet seems to have been wise and salutary. Promptness and decision marked every step of his career. Measures for the 1 The terrified official hastened to explain his letter, when Butler agreed to release him from the penalty of imprisonment on condition that he should withdraw the letter and make an apology. This he did in the most humble manner. 2 Mumford was a professional gambler, and consequently an enemy of society. He was about forty-two years of age. He was in the crowd in front of the St. Charles on the occasion of the General's conference with the Mayor and his friends, already alluded to, boasting of his exploit with the flag, inciting them to riot, and daring the National officers to arrest him. He continued his attitude of defiance, and became so dangerous to good order, as a leader of the turbulent spirits of New Orleans, that his arrest and punishment was a necessity. His overt act of treason was clear, and his execution had a most salutary effect. Mumford is the only man who, up to this time (1867), has been tried, condemned, and executed for treason since the foundations of the National Government were laid. 3 In Mr. Parton's work, which has been so frequently referred to, and whose full title is, General Butler in New Orleans: History of the Administration of the Department of the Gulf in the Year 1862; with an Account of the Capture of New Orleans, may be found full details of that administration. • Dec. 23, 1862. 4 So vigorous and efficient, so uncompromising with treason and rebellion, was Butler's administration of affairs in New Orleans, that the conspirators, and particularly the chief of the Confederacy, who had been his political associate a few years before, regarded him as an arch-enemy more to be dreaded than balls or bayonets. Their fears of him and personal hatred led them to the perpetration of the most foolish acts. At about the time when Butler left New Orleans, Jefferson Davis issued a notable proclamation, for the purpose of "firing the Southern heart," in which he professed to review Butler's administration of affairs there. In connection with a recitation of Butler's alleged crimes, he pronounced him "to be a felon, deserving of capital punishinent," and ordered that he should not be "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." He also ordered that the same treatment should be awarded to all commissioned officers serving under Butler. In addition to these instructions, he ordered that all negro slaves captured in arms against the Confederacy, and all commissioned officers of the United States serving in company with them, who should be captured, should be delivered to the executive authorities of the respective States to which the negroes belonged, "to be dealt with according to the laws of said States." There is not, probably, any intelligent and candid man in the Union to-day, and especially among the residents of New Orleans at that time, who does not agree, in honest opinion, with the verdict of a competent 352 THE LOUISIANA NATIVE GUARD. public good were continually planned and executed, and toward the close of summer he took the first step in the employment of negroes as soldiers, which the enemies of the Government had practised there. When General Banks arrived to take command of the Department, there were LOUISIANA NATIVE GUARD. three regiments of these soldiers, with two batteries manned by them, well drilled for his use, under the common name of the Louisiana Native Guard. The loss of New Orleans was the heaviest blow the Confederacy had yet received, and for a while it staggered under its infliction. "It annihilated us in Louisiana," said the Confederate historian of the war; "diminished our resources and supplies, by the loss of one of the greatest grain and cattle countries within the limits of the Confederacy; gave to the enemy the Mississippi River, with all its means of navigation, for a base of operations, and finally led, by plain and irresistible conclusion, to our virtual abandonment of the great and fruitful valley of the Mississippi." Let us now return to a consideration of the Army of the Potomac, which we left in a quiet condition after the little flurry at Drainsville, at near the close of the year. historian (Parton), that "each of the paragraphs of Jefferson Davis's proclamation which relates to General Butler's conduct is the distinct utterance of a lie." A few days after the proclamation was issued, Richard Yeadon, a prominent citizen of Charleston, publicly offered a reward of $10,000 for the capture and delivery of the said Benjamin F. Butler, dead or alive, to any proper Confederate authority." And "A Daughter of South Carolina," in a letter to the Charleston Courier, said, "I propose to spin the thread to make the cord to execute the order of our noble President, Davis, when old Butler is caught, and my daughter asks that she Jan. 1, 1863. IMMOBILITY OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 353 CHAPTER XIV. MOVEMENTS OF THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.-THE MONITOR AND MERRIMACK. HE Grand Army of the Potomac had gained strength in numbers and discipline during the months it had been lying in comparatively quiet camps around the National Capital. The battles of Ball's Bluff and Drainsville, already mentioned, had kept it from rusting into absolute immobility; and the troops were made hopeful at times by promises of an immediate advance upon the Confederates at Manassas. But at the beginning of the year 1862, when that army numbered full two hundred thousand men, the prospect of an advance seemed more remote than ever, for the fine weather that had prevailed up to Christmas was succeeded by storms and frost, and the roads in many places soon became almost impassable. Very little preparation had been made for winter quarters, and much suffering and discontent was the consequence.' The people were exceedingly impatient, and were more disposed to censure the Secretary of War than the General-in-Chief, for they had faith in the latter. They were gratified when Mr. Cameron left the office, and they gave to the new incumbent, Mr. Stanton, their entire confidence.2 The President was much distressed by the inaction of the great army. He could get no satisfaction from the General-in-Chief, when he inquired why that army did not move. Finally, on the 10th of January, he summoned Generals McDowell and Franklin to a conference with himself and his Cabinet. Never, during the whole war, did he exhibit such despondency as at 1 Various efforts were made by many officers to break the monotony of the camp and keep the soldiers cheerful. With this view, the musical "Hutchinson Family" were permitted, by Secretary Cameron, to visit the camps and sing their simple and stirring songs. They were diffusing sunshine through the army by delighting crowds of soldiers who listened to their voices, when their career of usefulness was suddenly arrested by the following order: By direction of General McClellan, the permit given to the 'Hutchinson Family' to sing in the camp, and their pass to cross the Potomac, are revoked, and they will not be allowed to sing to the troops." Why not? The answer was in the fact, that they had sung Whittier's stirring song, lately written, to the tune of Luther's Hymn, "Ein feste burg ist unser Gott," in which, among eight similar verses, was the fol lowing: "What gives the wheat-field blades of steel? What points the rebel cannon? What sets the roaring rabble's heel Of th' men o' th' South? For the Union's life? Hark to the answer: SLAVERY!" Edwin M. Stanton succeeded Simon Cameron, as Secretary of War, on the 18th of January, 1862. VOL. II.-61 |