Sunday, September 14, 2008

General Ben Butler - AKA "That Beast Butler"

Popular with Trooper York but not south of the Mason Dixon Line. The only Union General to have a "shoot on sight" warrant. To whit:

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE, Richmond [Va.], December 24, 1862.

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 111.

I. The following proclamation of the President is published for the information and guidance of all concerned therein:

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES.
A PROCLAMATION.

Now therefore, I Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, and in their name do pronounce and declare the said Benjamin F. Butler to be a felon deserving of capital punishment. I do order that he be no longer considered or 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; and I do further order that no commissioned officer of the United States taken captive shall be released on parole before exchange until the said Butler shall have met with due punishment for his crimes...

(Large Charlie Gibson Edit)

In testimony whereof I have signed these presents and caused the seal of the Confederate States of America to be affixed thereto at the city of Richmond on this 23d day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.


JEFF'N DAVIS.

By the President:
J. P. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State.

4 comments:

Trooper York said...

Listen, he was jus the general we needed running the civil adminstration in Iraq. He would have made a deal with who he needed to and put the troble makers up against the wall. What do you think Benjamin Butler would have done to Mookie Al Sadr. Or any journalist that gave him a hard time. Check out what he did to the Southern Bells who had taken to insulting and spitting on Union officers. That was the reason they put out a contract on him.

Trooper York said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Trooper York said...

I love a good honest corrupt politican. One that will stay bought. We need more Benjamin Butlers. That was the last time anyone had New Orleans under control.

rcocean said...

Thanks for the post Trooper. Butler certainly knew how to play the game. This is from after the Civil War:

"General Butler was appointed treasurer of the National Soldiers ' Home. He mingled the money of that institution with his own, got the use of it, got interest upon it, for which he never accounted. An attempt was made to investigate his accounts and he refused on the ground that he could not do it without showing his private account books".(!)

"He had a powerful political influence which made him an object of terror to timid and ambitious men. So the investigation was not pressed. He was allowed to pay over only such sum as he himself admitted to be due."


We need this kind of creative thinking in Iraq.