Benjamin Butler

Benjamin Butler (1818-1893) was a politician in the United States in the nineteenth century.

Benjamin Butler in Southern Victory
Benjamin Butler served as a general in the US Army during the War of Secession. He is best known for commanding the occupation garrison of New Orleans, Louisiana, a post in which he was most thoroughly despised by the locals. When the Union was defeated, Butler was forced to flee New Orleans for his life; the Confederate authorities had promised to hang him for war crimes without a trial.

In 1882, Butler (a former Democrat who once advocated electing Jefferson Davis President of the United States) was one of several prominent leaders of the Republican Party to attend a convention called by Abraham Lincoln in Chicago. He resisted Lincoln's proposal to replace hostility toward the Confederate States with workers' rights as the central plank of the party's platform. The rejection of this proposal led to Lincoln's defection to the Socialist Party and the end of the Republican Party as an effective force in American politics.

Benjamin Butler in The Guns of the South
Bejamin Butler had risen to prominence early in the Second American Revolution when he commanded a garrison at New Orleans. After an armistice was negotiated in 1864, United States President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate States President Jefferson Davis agreed to a peace conference with three Peace Commissioners appointed by each side. Lincoln appointed Butler as one of the three U.S. commissioners. Given his conduct during his time as the Commander of the Department of the Gulf and Davis's General Order 111, Confederates considered his appointment as a Commissioner an affront and insult, and barely concealed their hatred for the man during the negotiations. Nevertheless, they were required to extend Butler diplomatic immunity and provided him a strong guard.

A peace treaty was negotiated whereby the Confederacy abandoned claims to West Virginia and Maryland, while the United States ceded the Indian Territory. Also, state-wide referendum were to be held to determine the status of Kentucky and Missouri. Kentucky elected to join the C.S. while Missouri voted to remain with the U.S.

Benjamin Butler in "Must and Shall"
A bronze statue of Benjamin Butler stood in New Orleans. Neil Michaels thought Butler an unlikely choice for such an honor.