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mayor and several others, "is this: I wish to leave the municipal authority in the full exercise of its accustomed functions. I do not desire to interfere with the collection of taxes, the government of the police, the lighting and cleaning of the streets, the sanitary laws, or the administration of justice. I desire only to govern the military forces of the department, and to take cognizance only of affairs committed by or against them. Representing here the United States, it is my wish to confine myself solely to the business of sustaining the government of the United States against its enemies."

This conciliatory view of the position of affairs and of the determination of Butler to be the ruler in his place, according to his ability, was by no means acceptable to the mayor and inhabitants of New Orleans. They pretended to call themselves" unconquered;" they were, they said, merely submitting to "brute force;" they were accustomed to having their own way, and indulging in riot and disorder, with the attendant drunkenness and street murderings; they were, in fact, savage in their fury at being put under constraint, in not being allowed to insult, spit upon, or assassinate our men; and in having a muzzle put upon the rampant, seditious newspaper press, which, day by day, was striving to "fire" the southern heart.

papers must be taught a salutary lesson; so a guard was sent to the office of the True Delta; they took possession of the place, and some half dozen of their number being printers, they speedily put the proclamation in type and printed it off. There was no in terference with the office or its affairs, except for the business on which they came, and when that was accomplished they quietly retired.

The most pressing duty which fell upon Butler was to provide food for the starving population of a city containing 150,000 inhabitants, nearly half of whom knew not where to-morrow's bread was to come from, or whether to-morrow might not be actual starvation. The business of the city, being mostly in connection with the cotton trade, was virtually dead; the mecha nics and working classes were without occupation; the wealthy rebels, with hearts of stone as it seemed, would not contribute one cent to the relief of the poor, but were studying all the time how they might give aid to rebel bands outside the city; and Butler saw and felt, that immediate action must be taken; the poor must be fed, and the rich must contribute towards doing it. The weather was hot; the streets were extremely filthy; the terrible yellow fever might soon be expected; and not a day's delay could be justified. Hence, the commanding general, on the 9th of May, issued a general order, which gave evidence of his spirit and purpose in the existing state of affairs. Speaking in deservedly severe terms of the hard-heartedness

1862.

In this latter respect, immediate action was called for. On sending to the several papers of the city to print the proclamation, they all refused; something must be done at once; the gentlemen owning and publishing news of the wealthy rebels, and their indif

CH. XVII.]

BUTLER'S MUNICIPAL MEASURES.

ference to the sufferings of the poor, he announced that, to the extent possible within his power, he would see that the hungry were fed and the distressed relieved with provisions.*

185

ness, this desolation of the hearth stone, this starvation of the poor and helpless, should, as far as they may be able, relieve these distresses." Certain per sons, subscribers to the million and a Finding that the city government quarter loan, in the hands of a commitwas intentionally neglectful of the tee of public safety, for rebel defence streets and the general sanitary condi- of New Orleans against the United tion of the city, Butler determined to States, were assessed in proportion to take steps by which the poor should their subscriptions, this assessment have work and the city be purified. yielding nearly $313,000. Certain cotCol. Thorpe, appointed city surveyor, at once employed 2,000 men-1,000 more were afterwards added-in sweep. ing the streets, purging the canals, repairing the levee, removing nuisances, and in every kind of work which could render New Orleans clean, decent and fit to live in, despite the threatened yellow fever, which, the rebels declared, with much apparent satisfaction, would make short work of their hated op

pressors.

The question immediately arose, where were the funds to come from to support the thousands of men, with families dependent on them, thus set at work by authority of the commanding general? Butler's plan was bold and ingenious; it was set forth in a general order, issued August 4th, in which he declared, that "those who have brought upon the city this stagnation of busi

* Butler, desirous to do well by the working men,

was gratified by the result. Despite the impertinent protests of the Spanish, French, Belgian, and one or two other consuls, against requiring an oath of allegi

ance to the United States from all who desired protec

tion, not less than 14,000 of the bone and sinew of New Orleans took the oath of allegiance within a month

after Butler's arrival. Thirty-five thousand persons, too, were daily fed, through Butler's management, of whom only some 3,000 were natives, and out of more than 10,000 families thus kept from starving, less than one-tenth were Americans.

VOL IV-24

1862.

ton brokers, who had advised planters
not to send cotton to New Orleans,
were assessed $29,000; making in all,
for this charitable necessity, $342,000.*
It appears, that there were some
$800,000 in specie, at the office
of the consulate of the Nether-
lands. On the 10th of May, Butler
ordered the money to be seized, on the
alleged ground that it was placed there,
and held under cover of a foreign con-
sulate, in order to aid and benefit the
rebels. The consul, M. Couturié, took
high ground as to inviolability, free-
dom from search, and such like; but as
he refused to give up the key of his
vault when it was demanded by the
United States officer, it was forcibly
taken out of his pocket; the vault was
opened, and there were found to be,
beside a number of other things which
had no business there, 160 kegs, each
containing 5,000 Mexican dollars. They
were removed, and placed the next day
in the United States mint building.
Immediately all the consuls in New
Orleans (except the Mexican), nineteen
in number, prepared a strong protest

In December, 1862, the funds were exhausted. Butler renewed his general order, and the same assessments were laid upon the same persons, much, we may well believe, to their indignation and disgust.

against Butler's action, as a violation stances, the well dressed young girls,

of treaty rights, etc. The reply was somewhat sharp and decisive in tone, and gave these gentlemen to understand that they must mind their own proper business, and not undertake to give aid in any way to the rebel cause. M. Couturié wrote to Washington, and the Netherlands minister made loud complaint as to the indignity to which the consul had been subjected; whereupon Mr. Seward sent the Hon. Reverdy Johnson to New Orleans, as a special commissioner, to investigate the whole matter. On his report the money was given up to those who claimed it as foreign property, and Gen. Butler had a great deal of trouble with very little satisfaction. The consuls generally in New Orleans made themselves thoroughly disagreeable; but they soon found that Butler was a man who would put up with no nonsense or proclivities towards rebellion.*

The intensified bitterness of feeling on the part of the New Orleans rebels, and the daily mortification which came upon their pride and haughty boastings, we have before alluded to. This feeling cannot, in fact, be described; it can hardly be imagined. Open acts of violence, as they occurred, were promptly punished; and the men for the most part, abusive as they might show themselves, had to satisfy their hatred by mutterings and a sort of sullen blackguardism. The women, however, especially the women in good circum

* Mr. Parton gives a long and interesting chapter, with documents, respecting the foreign consuls and their conduct in New Orleans. See Parton's" Gen. Butler in New Orleans," pp. 354-406.

the women of old wealthy families, these manifested such spitefulness of temper, and behaved themselves to wards our officers and men in such wise as that it speedily became altogether intolerable. No indignity that could be thought of by these New Or leans "ladies" was left untried; such as insulting gestures, upturned noses, minute rebel flags on their persons, even at last spitting in the faces of the Union soldiers and upon their uniforms. Of course, such a state of things could not be allowed to continue; it must be stopped at once, and that effectively.

But how to do it, was not so easy to determine. The women could not be subjected to the same or similar punishments with the men; and Butler, after considerable study, prepared his general order, No. 28, which, as it became somewhat famous afterwards, we give to the reader in full: "As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themsel ves 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." That is, every woman of the town, behaving as every such miserable being does, was liable, according to the laws of New Orleans, to be arrested, imprisoned for the night in the calaboose, and next morning to be fined

CH. XVII.]

BUTLER'S FAMOUS ORDER No. 28.

187

$5 by the magistrate. No decent wo others like him, to Fort Jackson, and man would for a moment expose herself placing the city under martial rule. to such degradation. Whatever may Beauregard seized upon the opportunity, be thought of Butler's choice of phra- and almost surpassed himself in the seology, the effect of the order was proclamation which he issued; the immediate; and its success complete. governor of Louisiana discoursed upon Thenceforward, the "ladies" of New so stirring a theme as guarding “the Orleans found it best to confine the evi- chastity of our women," and "recoildences of their feelings of enmity with- ing in horror from the panderer to lust in bounds, and to behave themselves in and desecrator of virtue;" in various the streets and in public with tolerable parts of the North, Butler was sharply propriety.* and bitterly criticized; and even our very neutral friends in England felt bound to call the order" infamous," and to sneer expressively at "the model Republic."*

Unfortunately, as it turned out, there was a bad, vile sense which could be put upon the language of the latter part of the order, by such as wished to do so, as if Butler had deliberately ordered his officers and troops to commit the grossest outrage which can be conceived of. The order became famous all over the country; Mayor Monroe was immediately horrified, and wrote in the greatest haste to Gen. Butler; others joined with him, for the purpose of getting the order rescinded; which resulted in the sending his Honor, and

* It deserves to be stated, in this connection, that in no instance was the order misunderstood on the part of the troops, and not one arrest under Order No. 28 was

ever made.

+ Butler's note addressed to the mayor requires, as a matter of justice, to be quoted :-"Sir-There can be, there has been, no room for misunderstanding of gene

ral order No. 28. No lady will take any notice of a

strange gentleman, and a fortiori of a stranger, in such form as to attract attention. Common women do. Therefore, whatever woman, lady or mistress, gentle

or simple, who, by gesture, look or word. insults, shows contempt for, thus attracting to herself the notice of my officers and soldiers, will be deemed to act as becomes

her vocation of common woman, and will be liable to

be treated accordingly. This was most fully explained to you at my office. I shall not, as I have not, abated a single word of that order; it was well considered. If obeyed, it will protect the true and modest woman from all possible insult. The others will take care of themselves. You can publish your letter if you publish this note, and your apology."

1862.

On a previous page (see p. 157), we mentioned the execution of Mumford for an act of daring outrage upon the United States flag, on the 27th of April. The execution took place on the 7th of June, and it is noteworthy as the first instance in the history of the government, of a military trial and conviction for such an offence. This severe meting out of justice was followed, a few days afterward, by the execution of four persons, named Clary, Roy, Crage and Newton. Clary had been second officer of a United States transport, Crage had been first officer of the ship City of New York, Newton had been a private in the army, and Roy belonged to New Orleans. These men, with several others, formed an or ganized gang of thieves, who, under pretended forged authority of Gen. But

* Pollard's language is unusually violent about "the Beast," the "vulgar and drunken Butler," the "order which stigmatized as prostitutes the ladies of New Orleans," the infamous plundering, lying, harlotry and the like, by our officers and soldiers, etc., etc.-" Second Year of the War," pp. 17-21.

1862.

ler, and disguising themselves in uni- New Orleans, the national flag was forms of United States soldiers, entered raised, with expressions of Union feeland searched various houses, and stole ings on the part of a portion of the inall the money, jewelry and everything habitants, and the arsenal and other else they could lay hands upon. On public property were taken possession being arrested, they were tried and of by Capt. Palmer of the Iroquois, on convicted, and Butler sentenced them be the 8th of May. On the 12th, Natchez hung. The sentence was carried into ex- was visited, but as it was a position of ecution on the 16th of June. The effect no military importance no steps were was salutary upon the minds of both re- taken to occupy it. About a week bels and Union men in New Orleans. later, Commander Lee, with the advance of the squadron, arrived near Vicksburg, and under orders from Commodore Farragut and Gen. Butler, demanded the surrender of the place and its defences. This was peremptorily refused by the city authorities. Farragut arrived shortly after, with a body of troops under General Williams, and was followed by an ad ditional naval and military force, includ ing Porter's mortar flotilla, which had been withdrawn from its proposed theatre of operations on the Gulf. The fortifications at Vicksburg, consisting of an extensive range of batteries ou the heights, the town being built on a bluff rising to a considerable elevation above the river, were not very readily to be assailed by the guns of the squadron. In fact, the reduction of the place, which was capable of easy reinforce ment from its railroad connections with the interior, was speedily ascertained to be an undertaking of no slight difficulty.*

Abating none of his zeal, Butler was diligent in enforcing the confiscation act of Congress, July 17th; he seized upon 6,000 arms of various descriptions in private hands; and he made numer ous efforts to benefit the blacks-respecting whom the government had not yet adopted a definite line of policy -by enlisting many of them into the United States service, etc. Outside of the city, and in other parts of the department of the Gulf, he strove to accomplish something; but the lack of reinforcements, and the reverses to our arms in Virginia during the summer, prevented his doing all that he purposed.

It will be remembered that Commodore Farragut, immediately after the capture of New Orleans and its occupation by Butler (see p. 158), availed himself of the desired opportunity to advance up the Mississippi. He sent detachments of his squadron to take possession of the principal places, and to clear the way for the opening of the river throughout its entire course. This was to be accomplished by co-operation with Commodore Davis, who was ad-membered, is situate opposite a peninsula, on the other vancing from above Memphis towards Farragut's fleet below.

* Butler's scheme, by which the Mississippi was to be turned from its course and Vicksburg made an in

land town, was a failure. Vicksburg, it will be re

side of the river, some three miles long by a mile wide, formed by the Mississippi doubling on its own course. Butler's plan was to cut a canal across this peninsula At Baton Rouge, 140 miles above and persuade the river into a new channel; but the

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