ventured to ask what he should do with the peas.

"Put them into a wash-basin, if you can't find anything better. But take that dish away and never let me see it again."

The dish was removed, and Colonel Phelps ordered it to be taken to the hospital for the use

of the sick.

One truth became very clear to General Butler while he held command in Virginia. It was, that men enlisted for short terms cannot as a rule, be relied upon for effective service. When the time of the three months men was half expired, all other feelings seemed to be merged in the longing for release. Like boys at school before the holidays, they would cut notches in a stick and erase one every day; and, as the time of return home drew nearer, they would cut half a notch away at noon. It appeared that shorttermed troops are efficient for not more than half their time of enlistment; after that their hearts are at home, not in their duty. The general was of opinion, that an army, if possible, should be enlisted not for any definite term, but for the war; thus supplying the men with a most powerful motive for efficient action; the homeward path lying through victory over the

enemy.

The battle of Bull Run ended General Butler's hopes of being useful at Fortress Monroe. It was on the very day of that battle that he first received the means of moving a battery of field artillery, and of completing his preparations for sweeping clear of armed rebels the Virginia tip of the peninsula, of which Maryland forms the greater part. Colonel Baker was to command the expedition. Two days after the retreat came a telegram from General Scott: "Send to this place without fail, in three days, four regiments and a half of long-term volunteers, including Baker's regiment and a half." The troops were sent, and the expedition was necessarily abandoned.

simple garrison here, to send six thousand men that might be spared on the other line; or, still another, to make a descent upon the southern coast. I am ready and desirous to move forward in either."

In another part of this letter he strongly recommends Colonel Phelps for promotion. "Although some of the regular officers will, when applied to, say that he is not in his right mind-the only evidence that I have seen of it, is a deep religious enthusiasm upon the subject of slavery, which, in my judgment, does not unfit him to fight the battles of the North. As I never had seen him until he came here, as he differs with me in politics, I have no interest in the recommendation, save a deliberate judgment for the good of the cause after two months of trial." He had soon after the pleasure of handing to Colonel Phelps the shoulder straps of a brigadier-general.

"I am as much obliged to you, general," said he, "as though you had done me a favor."

The withdrawal of so large a number of his best troops, compelled the evacuation of Hampton. He was even advised, and that, too, by a member of the cabinet, as well as by many officers high in rank at the post, to abandon Newport News; but he would not let go his hold upon a point so important to the future movement which he had advised.

The evacuation of Hampton left homeless upon his hand several hundreds of contrabands. Again he urged the government to adopt a decisive policy with regard to the negroes, and to take measures for depriving the rebels of their slaves, by whose labor they were supported. But the government was not prepared to adopt the system proposed.

The southern people, it is worth remarking, had already shown their sense of General Butler's services to his country. They knew their enemy. It has been their cue to compliment some of the generals conspicuous in the service The news of the great defeat created at the of the United States; but for him who first fortress a degree of consternation almost amount-established the rule of employing the courtesies ing to panic; for, at once, the rumor spread that the victorious army were about to descend upon the fortress, and overwhelm it. General Butler was not alarmed at this new phantom. One of the first cheering voices that reached the administration was his. A few hours after reading the news, he wrote to his friend, the postmastergeneral:

It

"We have heard the sad news from Manassas. but are neither dismayed or disheartened. will have the same good effect upon the army in general that Big Bethel has had in my division, to teach us wherein we are weak and they are strong, and how to apply the remedy to our deficiencies. Let not the administration be disheartened or discouraged. Let no compromises be made, or wavering be felt. God helping, we will go through to ultimate assured success. But let us have no more of the silk glove in carrying on this war. Let these men be considered, what they have made themselves our enemies,' and let their property of all kinds, whenever it can be useful to us, be taken on the land where they have it, as they take ours upon the sea where we have it. There seems to me now but one of two ways, either to make an advance from this place with a sufficient force, or else, leaving a

which mitigate the horrors of war, they have only vituperation. They were right in their instinctive perceptions, for he was also the first to recognize them as enemies incurable, whose destruction as a power was essential to the restoration of the country. Few readers can have forgotten the biography of General Eutler which circulated in southern Lewspapers in these months. It ran thus:

"He is the son of a nesre barber, who, early in the century did business on Pedras street, in New Orleans. The zon, in early manhood, emigrated to Liberia, where an indisposition for labor and some talent turned his attention to the bar, to prepare for which he repaired to Massachusetts. Having mastered his profession, he acquired a fondness for theological studies, and became an active local preacher, the courso of his labors early leading him to New York, where he attracted the notice of Mr. Jacob Barker, then in the zenith of his fame as a financier, and who, discovering the peculiar abilities in that direction of the young mulatto, sent him to northern New York to manage a banking institution. There 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 aud 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 ex-flag, the whole country places the most implicit pected 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.

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, On the eighteenth of August, General Butler disproportioned to the magnitude of the achievegracefully resigned the command of the department. General Butler enjoyed a share of the ment to his successor. In his farewell order he eclat, which restored much of the public favor said: "The general takes leave of the command lost at Great Bethel. of the officers and soldiers of this department Two points of the general's conduct on this with the kindest feelings towards all, and with occasion, we may notice before passing on to the hope that in active service upon the field, more stirring scenes. The reader has not forthey may soon signalize their bravery and gal-gotten, that the rebel commander first offered to lant conduct, as they have shown their patriot- surrender, provided the garrison were allowed to isin by fortitude under the fatigues of camp duty. retire, and that General Butler refused the terms,

demanding unconditional surrender. "The Ade- | her quota was yet far from full; and it was snplaide," he reports, "on carrying in the troops, at posed, that General Butler could strike a vein the moment my terms of capitulation were under of hunker democrats which would yield good consideration by the enemy, had grounded upon results. Not that hunker democrats had been the bar. ** At the same time, the Harriet backward in enlisting; but it was thought that Lane, in attempting to enter the bar had grounded, many of them who still hesitated would rally to and remained fast; both were under the guns of the standard of one who had so often led them the fort. By these accidents, a valuable ship of in the mimic war of elections. On going home, war, and a transport steamer, with a large por- however, he found that General Sherman was tion of my troops, were within the power of the before him in special recruiting, and that to him enemy. I had demanded the strongest terms, Governor Andrew had promised the first regiwhich he was considering. He might refuse, ments that should be completed. He basrened back and seeing our disadvantage, renew the action. to Washington. He had been engaged to speak But I determined to abate not a tittle of what I in Faneuil Hall, but left a note of excuse, ending considered to be due to the dignity of the gov- with these words: "That I go for a vigorous ernment; nor even to give an official title to the prosecution of the war is best shown by the fact officer in command of the rebels. Besides, my that I am gone." At Washington, a change of tug was in the inlet, and, at least, I could carry programme. Ho penned an order, dated Sept. on the engagement with my two rifled six-pound- 10th, enlarging his sphere of operations to all ers, well supplied with Sawyer's shell." It was New England, which the secretary of war signed. an anxious moment, but his terms were accepted, To make assurance doubly sure, he asked the and the victory, was complete. additional sanction of the president's signature. The cautious president, always punctiliously respectful to state authority, first procured by telegraph the assent of all the governors of New England, and then signed the order.

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 the danger was supposed to be imminent. In action and out of action their conduct was everything that could be desired.

It was upon General Butler's return to New England to raise these troops, that the collision occurred between himself and the governor of Massachusetts, which caused so much perplexity to all the parties concerned.

Let us draw a veil over these painful scenes. The other matter which demands a word of A quarrel is divided into two parts. Part first explanation, relates to General Butler's sudden re-embraces all that is said and done while both turn 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 governmont 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 VII.

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

parties keep their temper; part second, all that is said and done after one or both of the parties lose it. The first part may be interesting, and even important: the second is sound and fury, signifying nothing. Governor Andrew felt that General Butler was interfering with his prerogative. General Butler, intent on the work in hand, was exasperated at the obstacles thrown in his way by Governor Andrew. General Butler, who had had bitter experience of subaltern_incompetency, was anxious to secure commissions to men in whom he could confide. Governor Andrew naturally desired to give commissions to men in whose fitness he could himself believe. General Butler's friends were chiefly of the hunker persuasion; Governor Andrew was better acquainted with gentlemen of his own party. Both were honest and zealous servants of their country. Long may both of them live to serve and honor it.

The six thousand troops were raised. But the delay in Massachusetts deprived General Butler of the execution of his peninsula scheme, which fell to the lot of General Dix, who well performed it in November. So General Butler went to Washington to learn what he was to do with his troops, now that he had them.

For many months the government had been silently preparing for the recovery of the southern strongholds, which had been seized at the outbreak of the war, while the last administration was holding parley with treason at the capital. Commodore Porter was busy at the Booklyn Navy Yard with his fleet of bomb-boats. The navy had been otherwise strengthened, though the day of iron-clads had not yet dawned in Hampton Roads. Immense provision had been ordered of the cumbrous material used in sieges.

:

But as yet, preparations only had been made; | IIe felt that in such a quarrel, America would do the points first to be attempted had not been selected; the chief attention of the government being still directed to the increase and organization of the army of the Potomac, held at bay by the phantom of two hundred thousand rebels, and endless imaginary masked batteries at Manassas. The arrival of General Butler at Washington recalled the consideration of the government to more distant enterprises.

as Greece had done when Xerxes led his myriads against her-every man a soldier, and every soldier a hero. He did not despair of seeing, first the border states, and then the gulf states, tired with the old animosity, and joining against the hereditary foe. Knowing what England had done in the way of violating the flag of neutrals, he regarded her conduct in this affair as the very sublime of impudence. He boiled with indig nation whenever he thought of it, and he thought of little else during those memorable weeks.

Fortunately, as most of us think, other counsels prevailed at Washington, and a blow was struck at the rebellion, by the surreuder of the men, of more effect than the winning of a great battle. The restoration of the Union will itself avenge the wrong, and cut deeper into the power that has misled England than the loss of many Canadas.

Mason and Slidell were given up. The troops sailed for Fortress Monroe. General Butler, early in January, 1862, went to Washington to conclude the last arrangements, intending to join his command in Hampton Roads. At the war department mere confusion reigned, for this was the time when Mr. Caineron was going out, and Mr. Stanton coming in. Nothing could be done; the troops remained at Fortress Mouroo; the general was lost to finite view in the mazes of Washington.

Mobile was ther the favorite object, both at the head-quarters of the army and at the navy department; and General Butler was directed to report upon the best rendezvous for an expedition against Mobile. Maps, charts, gazetteers, encyclopedias, and sea captains were zealously overhauled. In a day or two, the general was ready with his report, which named Ship Island as the proper rendezvous for operations against any point upon the gulf coast. Ship Island it should be then. To New England the general quickly returned, and started a regiment or two for the rendezvous under General Phelps, whose services he had especially asked. Then to Washington once more, where he found that Mobile was not in high favor with the ruling member of the cabinet, who thought Texas a more immediately important object. It was natural that he should so regard it, as he was compelled by his office to look at the war in the light shed from foreign correspondence. General Butler was now ordered to prepare a paper upon Texas, and the best mode of reannexing it. Nothing loath, he rushed again at the maps and gazetteers, collaring stray Galvestonians by the way. An elaborate paper upon Texas was the prompt result of his labors, a production justly complimented by General McClellan for its lucid completeness. Texas was in the ascendant. Texas should be reannexed; the French kept out; the German cotton planters delivered; the rebels quelled; the blockading squadron released.lished opinion at head-quarters was, that the Homeward sped the General to get more of his troops on the way. The Constitution, which had conveyed General Phelps to Ship Island and returned, was again loaded with troops. Two thousand men were embarked, and the ship was on the point of sailing, when a telegram from Washington arrived of singular brevity:

"DON'T SAIL. DISEMBARK."

We catch a brief glimpse of him, however, testifying before the committee on the conduct of the war. No reader can have forgotten that the question then agitating the country was, why General McClelian, with his army of two hundred thousand men, had remained inactive for so many months, permitting the blockade of the Potomac, and allowing the superb weather of November aud December to pass unimproved into the mud aud cold of January. The estab

rebel army before Washington numbered about two hundred and forty thousand men. Upon this point General Butler, from much study of the various sources of information, had arrived at an opinion which differed from the one in vogue, and this he communicated to the committee; and not the opinion only, but the grounds of the opinion. He presented an argument on the subject, having thoroughly got up the case as he had been wont to do for gentlemen of the

No explanation followed; nor did General Butler wait long for one. The next day he was in Washington, in quest of elucidation. The ex-jury. Subjecting General Beauregard's report of planation was simple. Mason and Slidell were in Fort Warren; England had demanded their surrender; war with England was possible, not improbable. If war were the issue, the Constitution would be required, not to convey troops to Ship Island, but to bring back those already there.

Nothing remained for General Butler but to return home, and wait till the question was decided. He went, but not until he had avowed his entire conviction that justice and policy united in demanding that the rebel emissaries should be retained. He thought that New England alone, drained as she was of men, would follow him to Canada, that winter, with fifty thousand troops, and seize the commanding points before the April sun had let in the English navy. The country, he thought, was not half awake-had not put forth half its strength.

lle cross

the two actious near Manassas to a minute anal-
ysis, he showed that the rebel army at the battle
of Bull Run numbered 36,600 men.
examined those reports, counting first by regi-
ments, secondly by brigades, and found the re-
He then
sults of both calculations the same.
computed the quotas of the various rebel states,
and concluded that the entire Confederate force
on the day of the battle of Bull Run was about
51,000. He next considered the increase to the
rebel armies since the battle of Bull Run. We,
with our greatly superior means of transport-
ation, with our greater population, and the
command of the ocean, had been able, by the
most strenuous exertions, to assemble an army
before Washington of little more than 200,000.
Could the rebels have got together half that
number in the same time? It was not probable,
it was scarcely possible. Then the extent of

country held by the rebel army was known, and forbade the supposition entertained at headquarters. Upon the whole, he concluded that the armies menacing Washington consisted of about 70,000 men; which proved to be within 5,000 of the truth.

This opinion was vigorously pooh-poohed in in the higher circles of the army, but leading members of the committee were evidently convinced by it. One officer of high rank, a frequenter of the office of the general-in-chief, was good enough to say, when General Butler had finally departed, that he hoped they had now found a hole big enough to bury that Yankee general in.

interview with the president, he argued, he
urged, he entreated, he convinced. Nobly were
his efforts seconded by Mr. Fox, the assistant
secretary of the navy, a native of Lowell, a
schoolmate of General Butler's. His whole
heart was in the scheme. The president spoke,
at length, the decisive word, and the general
almost reeled from the White House in the in-
toxication of his relief and joy. One difficulty
still remained, and that was the tight clutch of
General McClellan upon the troops. At Ship
Island there were 2,000 men; on ship-board
2,200; ready in New England, 8,500; total,
12,700. General Butler demanded a total of
15,000. As the general-in-chief would not hear
of sparing men from Washington, three of the
Baltimore regiments were assigned to the expe-

Butler's division which could be called drilled.
Not one of his regiments had been in action.

About January 23d, the last impediment was removed, and General Butler went home, for the last time, to superintend the embarkation of the rest of the New England troops. The troops detained so long at Fortress Monroe, were hurried on board the Constitution, and started for Ship Island. Other transports were rapidly procured; other regiments dispatched. A month later, General Butler was again in Washington to receive the final orders; the huge steamship Mississippi, loaded with his last troops, lying in Hampton Roads, waiting only for his coming to put to sea. It may interest some readers to know, that the total cost of raising the troops and starting them on their voyage, was about a million and a half of dollars.

During the delay caused by the change in the department of war, an almost incredible incident occurred, which strikingly illustrates the confu-dition; and these were the only ones in General sion sometimes arising from having three centers of military authority-the president, the secretary of war, and the commander-in-chief. By mere accident General Butler heard one day that his troops had been sent, two weeks before, from Fortress Monroe to Port Royal. "What!" he exclaimed, "have I been played with all this time?" He discovered, upon inquiry, that such an order had indeed been issued. He procured an interview with Mr. Stanton, gave him a history of his proceedings, and asked an explanation of the order. Mr. Stanton knew nothing about it; Mr. Cameron knew nothing about it; General McClellan knew nothing about it. Nevertheless, the order in question had really been sent. Mr. Stapton readily agreed to countermand the order, provided the troops had not already departed. The general hurried to the telegraph office, where, under a rapid fire of messages, a still more wonderful fact was disclosed. The mysterious order had been received in Baltimore by one of General Dix's aids, who had put it into his pocket, forgotten it, and carried it about with him two weeks! From the depths of his pocket it was finally brought to light. The troops were still at the fortress.

Mr. Stanton soon made himself felt in the dispatch of business. General Butler obtained an ample hearing, and the threads of his enterprize were again taken up. One day (about January 10th), towards the close of a long conference between the general and the secretary, Mr. Stanton suddenly asked:

'Why can't New Orleans be taken ?"
The question thrilled General Butler to the

marrow.

"IT CAN!" he replied.

This was the first time New Orleans had been mentioned in General Butler's hearing, but by no means the first time he had thought of it. The secretary told him to prepare a programme; and for the third time the general dashed at the charts and books. General McClellan, too, was requested to present an opinion upon the feasibility of the enterprise. He reported that the capture of New Orleans would require an army of 50,000 men, and no such number could be spared. Even Texas, he thought, should be given up for the present.

But now General Butler, fired with the splendor and daring of the new project, exerted all the forces of his nature to win for it the consent of the government. He talked New Orleans to every member of the cabinet. In a protracted

It was not without apprehensions that General Butler approached the capital on this occasionthere had been so many changes of programme. But all the departments smiled propitiously, and the final arrangements were soon completed. A professional spy, who had practiced his vocation in Virginia too long for him to venture again within the enemy's lines with much chance of getting out again, was on his way to New Orleans, having agreed to meet the general at Ship Island with a full account of the state of affairs in the crescent city. A thousand dollars if he succeeds. The department of the gulf was created, and General Butler formally placed in command of the same. The following were the orders of the commander-in-chief.

"HEAD-QUARTERS OF THE ARMY, "February 28d, 1862. "Major-General B. F. BUTLER, United States Army:

"GENERAL:-You are assigned to the command of the land forces destined to co-operate with the navy in the attack upon New Orleans. You will use every means to keep the destination a profound secret, even from your staff officers, with the exception of your chief of staff, and Lieutenant Wietzel, of the engineers.

"The force at your disposal will cousist of the first thirteen regiments named in your memorandum handed to me in person, the Twentyfirst Indiana, Fourth Wisconsin, and Sixth Michigan (old and good regiments from Baltimore)-these three regiments will await your orders at Fort Monros. Two companies of the Twenty-first Indiana are well drilled at heavy