'Beast' Butler Trivia Quiz

Answer: Jefferson Davis

Ironically, Davis became president of the Confederacy. His and Butler's friendship broke down to the point where both threatened the other with execution without trial if captured.

After enduring much criticism for having voted for Davis, Butler explained:
"With the facts before me, and impressing me with the conviction that the nomination of Judge Douglas could not be made with any hope of safety to the Democratic party, what was I to do? Yielding to your preferences, I voted seven times for Judge Douglas, although my judgment told me that my votes were worse than useless, as they gave him an appearance of strength in the convention which I felt he had not in the party.
I then looked about me ... [and] saw a statesman of national fame, who had led his regiment to victory at Buena Vista, a Democrat with whom I disagreed in some things, but with whom I could act in most-loving his country first, his section next, but just to all ... I thought such a man worthy of the compliment of a vote from Massachusetts; therefore I threw my vote for Jefferson Davis of Mississippi. I make no apology for that vote. I believe I was guided by an intelligent view of the situation."

Source: Howard Nash, "Stormy Petrel The Life and Times of General Benjamin F. Butler 1818-1893" (Rutherford, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1969), 63-64.

Answer: Contraband of war

In regards to fugitive slaves, Butler really only had two choices: return them or keep them. Since slaves were used to support the Confederate war effort, it would have been impractical and counter-productive to return them, so he detained the slaves.

In his memoirs, Butler transformed his essentially practical and punitive decision to retain fugitive slaves into a much more progressive act: "It afforded a groundwork for discussion which yielded many excuses for those who did not desire the war to be carried on. In a word, the slave question was a stumbling block ... Our troops could not act as a marshal's posse in catching runaway negroes to return them to their masters who were fighting us at the same time. What ought to be done? Nobody made answer to that question. Fortuitously it was thrust upon me to decide what must be done. . . . The effect upon the public mind ... was most wonderful. Everybody seemed to feel a relief on this great slavery question ... [And] it paved the way for the President's proclamation of freedom to the slaves within eighteen months afterwards."

Answer: New Orleans

Most of Butler's infamous reputation comes from his heavy-handed command of the city. In a May 8, 1862 letter to Secretary of War Stanton, Butler said:
"I landed in the city proper, posting and quartering them at the custom-house, city hall, mint, and Lafayette Square. I thought it necessary to make so large a display of force in the city. I found it very turbulent and unruly, completely under the control of the mob; no man on either side daring to act independently for fear of open violence and assassination. On landing we were saluted with cheers for Jeff. Davis and Beauregard. This has been checked, and the last man that was heard to call for cheers for the rebel chief has been sentenced by the provost judge to three months' hard labor at Fort Jackson, which sentence is being executed ....
It will become necessary for me to use the utmost severity in rooting out the various rebel secret associations here, which overawe the Union men, and give expression to the feelings of the mob by assassination and murder, and usurping the functions of government when a government was here pretended to. I propose to make some brilliant examples."
Source: OR, Ser. I-Vol VI, Chap. XVI, ar6_506-508.

Answer: Yellow Fever

Butler's father had died of Yellow Fever, so he had a keen interest in fighting the disease. It was not unusual for 10% of New Orleans to fall victim to Yellow Fever on any given year. Nearly 25% of the city died of Yellow Fever in 1853.

Butler connected the disease to poor sanitary conditions, writing: "... and I thought I detected why it raged in those spots; they were simply astonishingly filthy with rotting matter ... The fact that the disease flourished so much in the vicinity of decaying and putrid animal matter led me to the conclusion that this prolific cause of the typhus and typhoid fever must have something to do with el vomito. Upon my further diagnosis of the disease I found that it had also the peculiar characteristics of the congestive fevers caused by malarial exhalations from decaying vegetable matter. . . . Therefore, I argued that if we could get rid of the producing causes of either one of those species of fever we might not have a yellow fever."
Source: Benjamin F. Butler, "Butler's Book" pp. 400-405.

Answer: Spoons Butler

Multiple claims cite Butler as having the rather petty habit of stealing silverware from the wealthier inhabitants of New Orleans. Though never convicted of theft--never even charged--, it should be noted that Butler ended the war a much wealthier man than when he entered it.

Answer: Such women would be treated as prostitutes

General Order No. 28 reads: "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"

This order was a direct assault on the South's cult of Southern Womenhood, and a slap in the face to Confederate soldiers who knew that they could not protect their nation's women. It also had a darker side that suggested that soldiers could "have their way" with such women (as they would "have their way" with a prostitute).

The order was criticized in both the North and (obviously) the South, and even as far away as Europe. Britain's Lord Palmerston said: "I will venture to say that no example can be found in the history of civilized nations, till the publication of this order, of a general guilty in cold blood of so infamous an act as deliberately to hand over the female inhabitants of a conquered city to the unbridled license of unrestrained soldiery." However, it served Butler's purpose: ladies no longer mistreated his soldiers.

Answer: That Mumford be hanged

At the beginning of the war, Butler had tried to have a civilian hanged in Maryland. Like New Orleans, Baltimore had been the site of much discontent and Confederate sympathy. In true Machiavellian fashion, Butler assumed that such a harsh punishment on a civilian would make Confederate sympathizers think twice about resisting the Union. However, his target in Maryland was a wealthy man with influencial friends, so Butler was denied his example.

However, in New Orleans, Butler was quite far from Washington, and Mumford was neither wealthy nor influential. Though he was a husband and a father, Butler chose to hang Mumford in order to stifle any future disobedience to the Union. Butler himself wrote, "I thought I should be in utmost danger if I did not have him executed, for the question was now to be determined whether I commanded the city or whether the mob commanded it." (Quoted in Chester G. Hearn, When the Devil Came Down to Dixie. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1997.)

As historian Howard Nash points out "In his mind it was a question of hanging one defiant man or of eventually having to kill many innocent persons [if the city could not be subdued]." "Stormy Petrel: The Life and Times of General Benjamin F. Butler 1818-1893" (Rutherford, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1969), 154.

Answer: False

Of Lincoln's silence, Confederate President Jefferson Davis wrote in General Orders No. 111: " ... the silence of the Government of the United States and its maintaining of said Butler in high office under its authority for many months after his commission of an act that can be viewed in no other light than as a deliberate murder, as well as of numerous other outrages and atrocities hereafter to be mentioned, afford evidence only too conclusive that the said Government sanctions the conduct of said Butler and is determined that he shall remain unpunished for his crimes ..." Source: OR, Ser. I, Vol XV, 905-908.

Answer: Ft. Fisher

Even though he had virtually no military experience, Butler's political clout gave him one of the earliest commissions in the war. As a battlefield general, only Grant outranked him. Knowing that Butler was not an apt strategist or tactitian, Grant wrote to Secretary of War Stanton: "I am constrained to request the removal of Maj. Gen. B.F. Butler from the command of the Department of N.C. & Va. ... In my absence Gen. Butler necessarily commands, and there is a lack of confidence felt in his Military ability, making him an unsafe commander for a large Army. His administration of the affairs of his Department is also objectionable."
Source: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. Volume 13: November 16, 1864-February 20, 1865. Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982.

To General Sherman, Grant wrote: "To secure certain sucsess [sic] I deemed the Capture of Wilmington as the greatest importance. Butler came near loosing that prize to us. But Terry and Schofield have since retrieved his blunders ... Butler may not see it in that light."
Source: The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Volume 14: February 21-April 30, 1865.
Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1985.

Answer: Lincoln's reelection

Butler was valuable to the Lincoln administration because he was an influencial War Democrat. Keeping him in the field kept him out of the political arena. After Lincoln's reelection in November, 1864, he was no longer a valuable political ally.