he divided his time between the counting-house and the court-room, the prayer-meeting and the printing-office," etc. This, with a variety of comments, was the southern response to Annapolis and Baltimore. The North seemed slower to recognize his services. After the withdrawal of the four regiments, he found himself in a false position at Fortress Monroe, incapable of acting, yet expected by the country to act. His embarrassment was not diminished by discovering that the intention to remove his troops was known and published before the battle of Bull Run, and that they were still detained at Baltimore inactive. * * * "As soon," he wrote to Colonel Baker, "as I began to look like activity, my troops are all taken away. And almost my only friend and counselor, on whose advice I could rely, is taken away by name. What ought I to do under these circumstances? I ought not to stay here and be thus abused. Tell me as a true friend, as I know you are, what ought to be done in justice to myself. To resign, when the country needs service, is unpatriotic. To hold office which government believes me unfit for, is humiliating. To remain here disgraced and thwarted by every subordinate who is sustained by the head of the department, is unbearable." The government resolved his doubts. A day or two after the reply to General Butler's contraband letter had been dispatched, he was removed from the command of the department, and General Wool appointed in his stead. Whether the two acts had any connection, or whether the removal was a compliance with the suggestions of a leading newspaper, has not been disclosed. "General Wool," commented the New York Times, "is assigned the command of Fortress Monroe. So far, so good. The nation was deeply dissatisfied, not to say indignant, at the fact that one of the bravest, as well as one of the most skillful and experienced of American generals, was persistently kept in quiet retreat at Troy, N. Y., while political brigadiers were fretting away the spirit of the army by awkward blunderings upon masked batteries." There had, indeed, been much clamor of this kind, and worse. One gallant colonel, removed from his command for drunkenness, had caused letters to be published, accusing General Butler of disloyalty. Other officers, who had left the service for the service's good, were not silent, and one or two reporters, who had been ordered away from the post, still had the use of their pens. Nor had the public the means of understanding the causes of General Butler's inactivity. They saw the most important military post in the possession of the United States, apparently well supplied with troops, contributing nothing to the military strength of the country. The blame was naturally laid at the door of the general commanding it. On the eighteenth of August, General Butler gracefully resigned the command of the department to his successor. In his farewell order he said: "The general takes leave of the command of the officers and soldiers of this department with the kindest feelings toward all, and with the hope that in active service upon the field, they may soon signalize their bravery and gallant conduct, as they have shown their patriotism by fortitude under the fatigues of camp duty. No personal feeling of regret intrudes itself at the change in the command of the department, by which our cause acquires the services in the field of the veteran general commanding, in whose abilities, experience and devotion to the flag, the whole country places the most implicit reliance, and under whose guidance and command all of us, and none more than your late commander, are proud to serve." He had been in command of the department of Virginia two months and twenty-seven days. CHAPTER X. HATTERAS. THE order which relieved General Butler from command in Virginia assigned him to no other duty. He was simply ordered to resign his command to General Wool. Whether he was to remain at the fortress, or repair to head-quarters, or go home, was left to conjecture. What should he do? Where should he go? Friends unanimously advised: Go home. The government plainly intimates that it does not want you.' The game is lost; throw up your That It hand. "No," said he, "whatever I do, I can't go home. were the end of my military career, and I am in for the war." ended in his asking General Wool for something to do; and General Wool, who could not but see what efficient service he had rendered at the post, and heartily acknowledged it, gave him the command of the volunteer troops outside the fortress.* So he vacated the mansion within the walls, and served where he had been wont to rule. A week after, the expedition to reduce the forts at Hatteras Inlet was on the point of sailing. It was a scheme of the general's own. A Union prisoner being detained at the inlet, had brought the requisite information to the fortress many weeks before. He said, that through that gap in the long sand-island which runs along the coast of North Carolina, numberless blockade runners found access to the main land. His report being duly conveyed to head-quarters, a joint expedition, military and naval, was ordered to take the forts, destroy them, block up the inlet with sunken stone, and return to Fortress Monroe. Preparations for this expedition were at full tide when General Butler was superseded. Nine hundred troops were detailed to accompany it; a small corps for a major-general. General Butler volunteered to command them, and General Wool accepted his offer; kind friends whispering, "infra dig.” He went. Every one remembers the details of that first cheering success after the summer of our discontent. It seemed to break the spell of disaster, and gave encouragement to the country, dispro portioned to the magnitude of the achievement. General Butler enjoyed a share of the eclat, which restored much of the public favor lost at Great Bethel. Two points of the general's conduct on this occasion, we may notice before passing on to more stirring scenes. The reader has not forgotten, that the rebel commander first offered to surrender, provided the garrison were allowed to retire, and that General But "SPECIAL ORDERS, No. 9. "HEAD-QUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA, Major-General B. F. Butler is, hereby placed in command of the volunteer forces in this department, exclusive of those at Fort Monroe. His present command at Camps Butler and Hamilton will include the First, Second, Seventh, Ninth, and Twentieth regiments, the battalion of Massachusetts volunteers, the Union Coast Guard, and the Mounted Rifles. "C. C. CHURCHILL, Acting Assistant Adjutant-General. "By command of Major-General WOOL." ler refused the terms, demanding unconditional surrender. "The Adelaide," he reports, "on carrying in the troops, at the moment my terms of capitulation were under consideration by the enemy, had grounded upon the bar. ** At the same time, the Harriet Lane, in attempting to enter the bar had grounded, and remained fast; both were under the guns of the fort. By these accidents, a valuable ship of war, and a transport steamer, with a large portion of my troops, were within the power of the enemy. I had demanded the strongest terms, which he was considering. He might refuse, and seeing our disadvantage, renew the action. But I determined to abate not a tittle of what I considered to be due to the dignity of the government; nor even to give an official title to the officer in command of the rebels. Besides, my tug was in the inlet, and, at least, I could carry on the engagement with my two rifled six-pounders, well supplied with Sawyer's shell." It was an anxious moment, but his terms were accepted, and the victory was complete. One of the guns of the Minnesota was worked during the action by contrabands from Fortress Monroe. The danger was slight, for the enemy's balls fell short. But it was observed and freely acknowledged on all hands, that no gun in the fleet was more steadily served than theirs, and no men more composed than they when danger was supposed to be imminent. In action and out of action their conduct was everything that could be desired. The other matter which demands a word of explanation, rclates to General Butler's sudden return from Hatteras, which elicited sundry satirical remarks at the time. He had been ordered not to hold but to destroy the port. But on surveying the position, he was so much impressed with the importance of retaining it, that he resolved to go instantly to Washington and explain his views to the government. He did so, and the government determined to hold the place. Nor was haste unnecessary, since supplies had been brought for only five days. The troops must have been immediately withdrawn or immediately provisioned. And now again he was without a command. The government did not know what to do with him, and he did not know what to do with himself. Recruiting was generally at a stand still, and there were no troops in the field that had not their full allowance of major generals. West Point influence was in the ascendant, as surely it ought to be in time of war; and this lawyer in epaulets seemed to be rather in the way than otherwise. CHAPTER XI. RECRUITING FOR SPECIAL SERVICE. GENERAL BUTLER now recalled the attention of the government to his scheme for expelling rebel forces from the Virginia peninsula, which had been suspended by the sudden transfer of Colonel Baker and his command from Fortress Monroe. He obtained authority from the war department to recruit troops in Massachusetts for this purpose. Recruiting seemed to be proceeding somewhat languidly in the state, although her quota was yet far from full; and it was supposed, that General Butler could strike a vein of hunker democrats which would yield good results. Not that hunker democrats had been backward in enlisting; but it was thought that many of them who still hesitated would rally to the standard of one who had so often led them in the mimic war of elections. On going home, however, he found that General Sherman was before him in special recruiting, and that to him Governor Andrew had promised the first regiments that should be completed. He hastened back to Washington. He had been engaged to speak in Faneuil Hall, but left a note of excuse, ending with these words: "That I go for a vigorous prosecution of the war is best shown by the fact that I am gone." At Washington, a change of programme. He penned an order, dated Sept. 10th, enlarging his sphere of operations to all New England, which the secretary of war signed: "Major-General B. F. Butler is hereby authorized to raise, organize, arm, uniform, and equip a volunteer force for the war, in the New England states; not exceeding six (6) regiments of the maximum standard, of such arms, and in such proportions, and in such manner as he may judge expedient; and for this purpose his orders and requisitions on the quartermaster, ordnance, and other |