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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: BUN-CAL |
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BUTLER, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1818-1893) , American lawyer, soldier and politician, was born in Deerfield, New Hampshire , on the 5th of November 1818. He graduated at Waterville
House
After the Baltimore riot at the opening of the Civil War, Butler, as a brigadier-general in the state militia, was sent by Governor John A. Andrew, with a force of Massachusetts troops, to reopen communication between the Union states and the Federal capital . By his energetic and careful work Butler achieved his purpose without fighting, and he was soon afterwards made major-general, U.S.V. Whilst in command at Fortress Monroe, he declined to return to their owners fugitive slaves who had come within his lines, on the ground that, as labourers for fortifications, &c., they were contraband of war, thus originating the phrase " contraband " as applied to the negroes. In theconduct of tactical operations Butler was almost uniformly unsuccessful, and his first action at Big Bethel, Va., was a humiliating defeat for the National arms. Later in 1861 he commanded an expeditionary force, which, in conjunction with the navy, took Forts Hatteras and Clark, N.C. In 1862 he commanded the force which occupied New Orleans. In the administration of that city he showed great firmness and severity. New Orleans was unusually healthy and orderly during the Butler regime. Many of his acts, however, gave great offence, particularly the seizure of $800,000 'which had been deposited in the office of the Dutch consul
capital punishment," who if captured should be reserved for execution. In the campaign of 1864 he was placed at the head of the Army of the James, which he commanded creditably in several battles. But his mismanagement of the expedition against Fort Fisher, N.C., led to his recall by General Grant in December.He was a Republican representative in Congress from 1867 to 1879, except in 18751877. In Congress he was conspicuous as a Radical Republican in Reconstruction legislation, and was one of the managers selected by the House
impeachment , before the Senate, of President Johnson, opening the case and taking the most prominent part in it on his side; he exercised a marked influence over President Grant and was regarded as his spokesman in the House, and he was one of the foremost advocates of the payment in " greenbacks " of the government bonds. In 1871 he was a defeated candidate for governor of Massachusetts, and also in 1879 when he ran on the Democratic and Greenback tickets, but in 1882 he was elected by the Democrats who got no other state offices. In 1883 he was defeated on renomination. As presidential nominee of the Greenback and Anti-Monopolist parties, he polled 175,370 votes in 1884, when he had bitterly opposed the nomination by the Democratic party of Grover Cleveland, to defeat whom he tried to " throw " his own votes in Massachusetts and New York
See James Parton, Butler in New Orleans (New York
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