Diary of Sarah Morgan: May 27, 1862

The cry is “Ho! for Greenwell!” Very probably this day week will see us there. I don't want to go. If we were at peace, and were to spend a few months of the warmest season out there, none would be more eager and delighted than I: but to leave our comfortable home, and all it contains, for a rough pine cottage seventeen miles away even from this scanty civilization, is sad. It must be! We are hourly expecting two regiments of Yankees to occupy the Garrison, and some fifteen hundred of our men are awaiting them a little way off, so the fight seems inevitable. And we must go, leaving what little has already been spared us to the tender mercies of Northern volunteers, who, from the specimen of plundering they gave us two weeks ago, will hardly leave us even the shelter of our roof. O my dear Home! How can I help but cry at leaving you forever? For if this fight occurs, never again shall I pass the threshold of this house, where we have been so happy and sad, the scene of joyous meetings and mournful partings, the place where we greeted each other with glad shouts after even so short a parting, the place where Harry and father kissed us good-bye and never came back again!

I know what Lavinia has suffered this long year, by what we have suffered these last six weeks. Poor Lavinia, so far away! How easier poverty, if it must come, would be if we could bear it together! I wonder if the real fate of the boys, if we ever hear, can be so dreadful as this suspense? Still no news of them. My poor little Jimmy! And think how desperate Gibbes and George will be when they read Butler's proclamation, and they not able to defend us! Gibbes was in our late victory of Fredericksburg, I know.

In other days, going to Greenwell was the signal for general noise and confusion. All the boys gathered their guns and fishing-tackle, and thousand and one amusements; father sent out provisions; we helped mother pack; Hal and I tumbled over the libraries to lay in a supply of reading material; and all was bustle until the carriage drove to the door at daylight one morning, and swept us off. It is not so gay this time. I wandered around this morning selecting books alone. We can only take what is necessary, the rest being left to the care of the Northern militia in general. I never knew before how many articles were perfectly “indispensable” to me. This or that little token or keepsake, piles of letters I hate to burn, many dresses, etc., I cannot take conveniently, lie around me, and I hardly know which to choose among them, yet half must be sacrificed; I can only take one trunk.

SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's Diary, p. 37-9

Diary of Sarah Morgan: May 17, 1862

One of these days, when peace is restored and we are quietly settled in our allotted corners of this wide world without any particularly exciting event to alarm us; and with the knowledge of what is now the future, and will then be the dead past; seeing that all has been for the best for us in the end; that all has come right in spite of us, we will wonder how we could ever have been foolish enough to await each hour in such breathless anxiety. We will ask ourselves if it was really true that nightly, as we lay down to sleep, we did not dare plan for the morning, feeling that we might be homeless and beggars before the dawn. How unreal it will then seem! We will say it was our wild imagination, perhaps. But how bitterly, horribly true it is now!

Four days ago the Yankees left us, to attack Vicksburg, leaving their flag flying in the Garrison without a man to guard it, and with the understanding that the town would be held responsible for it. It was intended for a trap; and it succeeded. For night before last, it was pulled down and torn to pieces.

Now, unless Will will have the kindness to sink a dozen of their ships up there, — I hear he has command of the lower batteries, — they will be back in a few days, and will execute their threat of shelling the town. If they do, what will become of us? All we expect in the way of earthly property is as yet mere paper, which will be so much trash if the South is ruined, as it consists of debts due father by many planters for professional services rendered, who, of course, will be ruined, too, so all money is gone. That is nothing, we will not be ashamed to earn our bread, so let it go.

But this house is at least a shelter from the weather, all sentiment apart. And our servants, too; how could they manage without us? The Yankees, on the river, and a band of guerrillas in the woods, are equally anxious to precipitate a fight. Between the two fires, what chance for us? It would take only a little while to burn the city over our heads. They say the women and children must be removed, these guerrillas. Where, please? Charlie says we must go to Greenwell. And have this house pillaged? For Butler has decreed that no unoccupied house shall be respected. If we stay through the battle, if the Federals are victorious, we will suffer. For the officers here were reported to have said, “If the people here did not treat them decently, they would know what it was when Billy Wilson's crew arrived. They would give them a lesson!” That select crowd is now in New Orleans. Heaven help us when they reach here! It is in these small cities that the greatest outrages are perpetrated. What are we to do?

A new proclamation from Butler has just come. It seems that the ladies have an ugly way of gathering their skirts when the Federals pass, to avoid any possible contact. Some even turn up their noses. Unladylike, to say the least. But it is, maybe, owing to the odor they have, which is said to be unbearable even at this early season of the year. Butler says, whereas the so-called ladies of New Orleans insult his men and officers, he gives one and all permission to insult any or all who so treat them, then and there, with the assurance that the women will not receive the slightest protection from the Government, and that the men will all be justified. I did not have time to read it, but repeat it as it was told to me by mother, who is in utter despair at the brutality of the thing. These men our brothers? Not mine! Let us hope for the honor of their nation that Butler is not counted among the gentlemen of the land. And so, if any man should fancy he cared to kiss me, he could do so under the pretext that I had pulled my dress from under his feet! That will justify them! And if we decline their visits, they can insult us under the plea of a prior affront. Oh! Gibbes! George! Jimmy! never did we need your protection as sorely as now. And not to know even whether you are alive! When Charlie joins the army, we will be defenseless, indeed. Come to my bosom, O my discarded carving-knife, laid aside under the impression that these men were gentlemen. We will be close friends once more. And if you must have a sheath, perhaps I may find one for you in the heart of the first man who attempts to Butlerize me. I never dreamed of kissing any man save my father and brothers. And why any one should care to kiss any one else, I fail to understand. And I do not propose to learn to make exceptions.

Still no word from the boys. We hear that Norfolk has been evacuated; but no details. George was there. Gibbes is wherever Johnston is, presumably on the Rappahannock; but it is more than six weeks since we have heard from either of them, and all communication is cut off.

SOURCE: Sarah Morgan Dawson, A Confederate Girl's Diary, p. 33-6

John Stuart Mill to John Lothrop Motley, October 31, 1862

ST. VERAN, 31st October 1862.

MY DEAR SIR, — Allow me to thank you most warmly for your long and interesting letter, which if it had been twice as long as it was would only have pleased me more. There are few persons that I have seen only once with whom I so much desire to keep up a communication as with you; and the importance of what I learn from you respecting matters so full of momentous consequences to the world would make such communication most valuable to me even if I did not wish for it on personal grounds. The state of affairs in America has naturally improved since you wrote, by the defeat of the enemy in Maryland and their expulsion from it, and still more by Mr. Lincoln's Anti-Slavery Proclamation, which no American, I think, can have received with more exultation than I did. It is of the highest importance, and more so because the manifest reluctance with which the President made up his mind to that decided step indicates that the progress of opinion in the country had reached the point of seeing its necessity for the effectual prosecution of the war. The adhesion of so many Governors of States, some of them originally Democrats, is a very favourable sign, and thus far the measure does not seem to have materially weakened your hold upon the border Slave States. The natural tendency will be, if the war goes on successfully, to reconcile those States to emancipating their own slaves, availing themselves of the pecuniary offers made by the Federal Government. I still feel some anxiety about the reception which will be given to the measure by Congress when it meets, and I should much like to know what are your expectations on the point. In England the proclamation has only increased the venom of those who, after taunting you so long with caring nothing for abolition, now reproach you for your abolitionism as the worst of your crimes. But you will find that, whenever any name is attached to these wretched effusions, it is always that of some deeply-dyed Tory — generally the kind of Tory to whom slavery is rather agreeable than not, or who so hate your democratic institutions that they would be sure to inveigh against you whatever you did, and are enraged at being no longer able to taunt you with being false to your own principles. It is from there also that we are now beginning to hear, what disgusts me more than all the rest, the base doctrine that it is for the interest of England that the American Republic should be broken up. Think of us as ill as you may (and we have given you abundant cause), but do not, I entreat you, think that the general English public is so base as this. Our national faults are not now of that kind, and I firmly believe that the feeling of almost all English Liberals, even those whose language has been the most objectionable, is one of sincere respect for the disruption which they think inevitable. As long as there is a Tory party in England it will rejoice at everything which injures or discredits American institutions, but the Liberal party, who are now, and are likely to remain much the strongest, are naturally your friends and allies, and will return to that position when once they see that you are not engaged in a hopeless, and therefore, as they think, an irrational and unjustifiable contest. There are writers enough here to keep up the fight and meet the malevolent comments on all your proceedings by right ones. Besides Cairns, and Dicey, and H. Martineau, and Ludlow, and Hughes, besides the Daily News, and Macmillan, and the Star, there is now the Westminster and the London Review, to which several of the best writers of the Saturday have gone over; there is Ellison of Liverpool, the author of “Slavery and Secession,” and editor of a monthly economical journal, the Exchange; and there are other writers less known who, if events go on favourably, will rapidly multiply. Here in France the state of opinion on the subject is most gratifying. All Liberal Frenchmen seem to have been with you from the first. They did not know more about the subject than the English, but their instincts were truer. By the way, what did you think of the narrative of the campaign on the Potomac in the Revue des Deux Mondes of 15th October by the Comte de Paris? It looks veracious, and is certainly intelligent, and in the general effect likely, I should think, to be very useful to the cause.

I still think you take too severe a view of the conduct of our Government. I grant that the extra-official dicta of some of the Ministry have been very unfortunate, especially that celebrated one of Lord Russell, on which I have commented not sparingly in the Westminster Review. Gladstone, too, a man of a much nobler character than Lord Russell, has said things lately which I very much regret, though they were accompanied by other things showing that he had no bad feelings towards you, and regretted their existence in others. But as a Government I do not see that their conduct is objectionable. The port of Nassau may be all that you say it is, but the United States also have the power, and have used it largely, of supplying themselves with munitions of war from our ports. If the principle of neutrality is accepted, our markets must be open to both sides alike, and the general opinion in England is (I do not say whether rightly or wrongly) that, if the course adopted is favourable to either side, it is to the United States, since the Confederates, owing to the blockade of their ports, have so much less power to take advantage of the facilities extended equally to both. What you mention about a seizure of arms by our Government must, I feel confident, have taken place during the Trent difficulty, at which time alone (and neither before nor after) has the export of arms to America been interdicted.

It is very possible that too much may have been made of Butler's proclamation, and that he was more wrong in form and phraseology than in substance. But with regard to the watchword said to have been given out by Pakenham at New Orleans, I have always hitherto taken it for a mere legend, like the exactly parallel ones which grew up under our own eyes at Paris in 1848 respecting the Socialist insurrections of June. What authority there may be for it I do not know, but, if it is true, nothing can mark more strongly the change which has taken place in the European standard of belligerent rights since the wars of the beginning of the century, for if any English commander at the present time were to do the like he never could show his face again in English society, even if he escaped being broken by a court-martial ; and I think we are entitled to blame in others what none of us, of the present generation at least, would be capable of perpetrating. You are perhaps hardly aware how little the English of the present day feel of solidarité with past generations. We do not feel ourselves at all concerned to justify our predecessors. Foreigners reproach us with having been the great enemies of neutral rights so long as we were belligerents, and with turning round and stickling for them now when we are neutrals; but the real fact is we are convinced, and have no hesitation in saying (what our Liberal party said even at the time), that our policy in that matter in the great Continental war was totally wrong.

But while I am anxious that liberal and friendly Americans should not think worse of us than we really deserve, I am deeply conscious and profoundly grieved and mortified that we deserve so ill; and are making, in consequence, so pitiful a figure before the world, with which, if we are not daily and insultingly taxed by all Europe, it is only because our enemies are glad to see us doing exactly what they expected, justifying their opinion of us, and acting in a way which they think perfectly natural, because they think it perfectly selfish.

SOURCE: Hugh S. R. Elliot, Editor, The Letters of John Stuart Mill, Volume 1, p. 263-6

Proclamation of Jefferson Davis: General Orders No. 111, December 23, 1862

GENERAL ORDERS No. 111.

ADJT. AND INSP. GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Richmond, December 24, 1862.

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.

Whereas a communication was addressed on the 6th day of July last (1862) by General Robert E. Lee, acting under the instructions of the Secretary of War of the Confederate States of America, to General H. W. Halleck, General-in-Chief of the U. S. Army, informing the latter that a report had reached this Government that William B. Mumford, a citizen of the Confederate States, had been executed by the U. S. authorities at New Orleans for having pulled down the U. S. flag in that city before its occupation by the forces of the United States, and calling for a statement of the facts with a view to retaliation if such an outrage had really been committed under sanction of the authorities of the United States;

And whereas (no answer having been received to said letter) another letter was on the 2d August last (1862) addressed by General Lee under my instructions to General Halleck renewing the inquiry in relation to the said execution of said Mumford, with the information that in the event of not receiving a reply within fifteen days it would be assumed that the fact alleged was true and was sanctioned by the Government of the United States;

And whereas an answer, dated on the 7th August last (1862) was addressed to General Lee by General H. W. Halleck, the said General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, alleging sufficient cause for failure to make early reply to said letter of 6th July, asserting that “no authentic information had been received in relation to the execution of Mumford, but measures will be immediately taken to ascertain the facts of the alleged execution,” and promising that General Lee should be duly informed thereof;

And whereas on the 29th November last (1862) another letter was addressed under my instructions by Robert Ould, Confederate agent for the exchange of prisoners under the cartel between the two Governments, to Lieut. Col. W. H. Ludlow, agent of the United States under said cartel, informing him that the explanations promised in the said letter of General Halleck of 7th August last had not yet been received, and that if no answer was sent to the Government within fifteen days from the delivery of this last communication it would be considered that an answer is declined;

And whereas by letter dated on the 3d day of the present month of December the said Lieutenant-Colonel Ludlow apprised the said Robert Ould that the above-recited communication of 29th of November had been received and forwarded to the Secretary of War of the United States;

And whereas this last delay of fifteen days allowed for answer has elapsed and no answer has been received;

And whereas in addition to the tacit admission resulting from the above refusal to answer I have received evidence fully establishing the truth of the fact that the said William B. Mumford, a citizen of this Confederacy, was actually and publicly executed in cold blood by hanging after the occupation of the city of New Orleans by the forces under the command of General Benjamin F. Butler when said Mumford was an unresisting and non-combatant captive, and for no offense even alleged to have been committed by him subsequent to the date of the capture of the said city;

And whereas 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:

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.

And whereas the hostilities waged against this Confederacy by the forces of the United States under the command of said Benjamin F. Butler have borne no resemblance to such warfare as is alone permissible by the rules of international law or the usages of civilization but have been characterized by repeated atrocities and outrages, among the large number of which the following may be cited as examples:

Peaceful and aged citizens, unresisting captives and non-combatants, have been confined at hard labor with balls and chains attached to their limbs, and are still so held in dungeons and fortresses. Others have been subjected to a like degrading punishment for selling medicines to the sick soldiers of the Confederacy.

The soldiers of the United States have been invited and encouraged by general orders to insult and outrage the wives, the mothers and the sisters of our citizens.

Helpless women have been torn from their homes and subjected to solitary confinement, some in fortresses and prisons and one especially on an island of barren sand under a tropical sun; have been fed with loathsome rations that had been condemned as unfit for soldiers, and have been exposed to the vilest insults.

Prisoners of war who surrendered to the naval forces of the United States on agreement that they should be released on parole have been seized and kept in close confinement.

Repeated pretexts have been sought or invented for plundering the inhabitants of the captured city by fines levied and exacted under threat of imprisoning recusants at hard labor with ball and chain.

The entire population of the city of New Orleans have been forced to elect between starvation, by the confiscation of all their property, and taking an oath against conscience to bear allegiance to the invaders of their country.

Egress from the city has been refused to those whose fortitude withstood the test, even to lone and aged women and to helpless children; and after being ejected from their homes and robbed of their property they have been left to starve in the streets or subsist on charity.

The slaves have been driven from the plantations in the neighborhood of New Orleans till their owners would consent to share the crops with the commanding general, his brother Andrew J. Butler, and other officers; and when such consent had been extorted the slaves have been restored to the plantations and there compelled to work under the bayonets of guards of U. S. soldiers.

Where this partnership was refused armed expeditions have been sent to the plantations to rob them of everything that was susceptible of removal, and even slaves too aged or infirm for work have in spite of their entreaties been forced from the homes provided by the owners and driven to wander helpless on the highway.

By a recent general order (No. 91) the entire property in that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mississippi River has been sequestrated for confiscation and officers have been assigned to duty with orders to gather up and collect the personal property and turn over to the proper officers upon their receipts such of said property as may be required for the use of the U. S. Army; to collect together all the other personal property and bring the same to New Orleans and cause it to be sold at public auction to the highest bidders” – an order which if executed condemns to punishment by starvation at least a quarter of a million of human beings of all ages, sexes and conditions; and of which the execution although forbidden to military officers by the orders of President Lincoln is in accordance with the confiscation law of our enemies which he has directed to be enforced through the agency of civil officials. And finally the African slaves have not only been excited to insurrection by every license and encouragement but numbers of them have actually been armed for a servile war – a war in its nature far exceeding in horrors the most merciless atrocities of the savages.

And whereas the officers under the command of the said Butler have been in many instances active and zealous agents in the commission of these crimes, and no instance is known of the refusal of any one of them to participate in the outrages above narrated;

And whereas the President of the United States has by public and official declaration signified not only his approval of the effort to excite servile war within the Confederacy but his intention to give aid and encouragement thereto if these independent States shall continue to refuse submission to a foreign power after the 1st day of January next, and has thus made known that all appeals to the laws of nations, the dictates of reason and the instincts of humanity would be addressed in vain to our enemies, and that they can be deterred from the commission of these crimes only by the terms of just retribution:

Now therefore I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America and acting by their authority, appealing to the Divine Judge in attestation that their conduce is not guided by the passion of revenge but that they reluctantly yield to the solemn duty of repressing by necessary severity crimes of which their citizens are the victims, do issue this my proclamation, and by virtue of my authority as Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States do order—

1. That all commissioned officers in the command of said Benjamin F. Butler be declared not entitled to be considered as soldiers engaged in honorable warfare but as robbers and criminals deserving death, and that they and each of them be whenever captured reserved for execution.

2. That the private soldiers and non-commissioned officers in the army of said Butler be considered as only the instruments used for the commission of the crimes perpetrated by his orders and not as free agents; that they therefore be treated when captured as prisoners of war with kindness and humanity and be sent home on the usual parole that they will in no manner aid or serve the United States in any capacity during the continuance of this war unless duly exchanged.

3. That all negro slaves captured in arms be at once delivered over to the executive authorities of the respective States to which they belong to be dealt with according to the laws of said States.

4. That the like orders be executed in all cases with respect to all commissioned officers of the United States when found serving in company with armed slaves in insurrection against the authorities of the different States of this Confederacy.

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.

[L. S.]

JEFF'N DAVIS.

By the President:

J. P. BENJAMIN,

Secretary of State.

II. Officers of the Army are charged with the observance and enforcement of the foregoing orders of the President. Where the evidence is not full or the case is for any reason of a doubtful character it will be referred through this office for the decision of the War Department.

By order:

S. COOPER,

SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series 2, Volume 5 (Serial No. 118), p. 795-7

Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: June 12, 1862

New England's Butler, best known to us as "Beast" Butler, is famous or infamous now. His amazing order to his soldiers at New Orleans and comments on it are in everybody's mouth. We hardly expected from Massachusetts behavior to shame a Comanche.

One happy moment has come into Mrs. Preston's life. I watched her face to-day as she read the morning papers. Willie's battery is lauded to the skies. Every paper gave him a paragraph of praise.

South Carolina was at Beauregard's feet after Fort Sumter. Since Shiloh, she has gotten up, and looks askance rather when his name is mentioned. And without Price or Beauregard who takes charge of the Western forces? “Can we hold out if England and France hold off?” cries Mem. “No, our time has come.”

“For shame, faint heart! Our people are brave, our cause is just; our spirit and our patient endurance beyond reproach.” Here came in Mary Cantey's voice: “I may not have any logic, any sense. I give it up. My woman's instinct tells me, all the same, that slavery's time has come. If we don't end it, they will.”

After all this, tried to read Uncle Tom, but could not; too sickening; think of a man sending his little son to beat a human being tied to a tree. It is as bad as Squeers beating Smike. Flesh and blood revolt; you must skip that; it is too bad.

Mr. Preston told a story of Joe Johnston as a boy. A party of boys at Abingdon were out on a spree, more boys than horses; so Joe Johnston rode behind John Preston, who is his cousin. While going over the mountains they tried to change horses and got behind a servant who was in charge of them all. The servant's horse kicked up, threw Joe Johnston, and broke his leg; a bone showed itself. “Hello, boys! come here and look: the confounded bone has come clear through,” called out Joe, coolly.

They had to carry him on their shoulders, relieving guard. As one party grew tired, another took him up. They knew he must suffer fearfully, but he never said so. He was as cool and quiet after his hurt as before. He was pretty roughly handled, but they could not help it. His father was in a towering rage because his son's leg was to be set by a country doctor, and it might be crooked in the process. At Chickahominy, brave but unlucky Joe had already eleven wounds.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 183-4

Lord Palmerston to Charles Francis Adams, June 11, 1862

BROCKET, 11 June, 1862.

MY DEAR SIR, — I cannot refrain from taking the liberty of saying to you that it is difficult if not impossible to express adequately the disgust which must be excited in the mind of every honorable man by the general order of General Butler given in the enclosed extract from yesterday’s “ Times.” Even when a town is taken by assault it is the practice of the commander of the conquering army to protect to his utmost the inhabitants and especially the female part of them, and 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 an unrestrained soldiery.

If the Federal government chooses to be served by men capable of such revolting outrages, they must submit to abide by the deserved opinion which mankind will form of their conduct.

My dear Sir, Yrs faithfully,

PALMERSTON.

C. F. ADAMS, Esq.

SOURCE: Charles Francis Adams [Jr.], Charles Francis Adams, p. 248-9

A municipal regulation of the city of New Orleans . . .

. . . punishes with imprisonment in the calaboose any women of the town found in the streets after nightfall, or who may converse from the windows of their houses with persons outside.  And this is the punishment accorded to women who may insult our soldiers under the proclamation, so the squeamish ones who have been so exercised over the order, can bottle up their sympathy for use on future occasions.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, June 7, 1862, p. 2

From New Orleans

Gen. Butler, of all our military Governors has the most thorough appreciation of the Secessionists, and is always master of the situation.  And the General not only appreciates the secesh but very soon learns them to appreciate him, as witness the following items among many of the same sort, which we get from New Orleans. He throws out Confederate notes and shinplasters, forbids the fast day appointed by “one Jefferson Davis” – suppresses newspapers – protects the people and feeds the poor – learns Secesh women proper behavior and descent deportment – snubs the City Fathers and takes down the high sailing rebel by several pegs if not more.  The New Orleans snobs and would be gentry are likely to improve in their manners if not in their morals under the administration of “Picayune Butler.”

COTTON PROTECTED AND COMING IN

Trade is beginning to revive in New Orleans.  The true Delta announces the arrival, on the 15th inst., of a load of cotton by the steamer Diana from Plaquemine.  Cattle had come in from the Red river, and an arrival from Carolina Bluff is reported, with corn, oats, flour and bacon.  In order to encourage the shipments of cotton, General Butler issued the following order promising protection to the cargoes:

The Commanding General of the Department having been informed that rebellious lying and desperate men have represented and are now representing to the honest planters and the good people of the State of Louisiana that the United States Government, by its forces have come here to confiscate and destroy their crops of cotton and sugar, it is hereby ordered  to be made known by publication in all the newspapers of this city that all cargoes of cotton and sugar shall receive the safe conduct of the forces of the United States and the boats bringing them from beyond the lines of the United States force may be allowed to return in safety after a reasonable delay, if their owners shall so desire.  Provided, they bring no passengers except the owners and managers of said boat and of the property so conveyed, and no other merchandise except provisions of which such boats are requested to bring a full supply for the benefit of the suffering poor of the city.

By command of Major General Butler,

GEO. C. STRONG,

A. A. G. Chief of Staff

GENERAL BUTLER AND THE NEWSPAPERS

On the 16th Gen. Butler suppressed the New Orleans Bee, and took possession of the Delta office, by virtue of the following “special order.”

I.  The New Orleans Bee newspaper having published an elaborate though covert argument in favor of the cotton burning mob is hereby suppressed.  No publication of any description will issue from that office until further orders.

II.  The New Orleans Delta newspaper having, in an article of to-day’s issue, discussed the cotton question in a manner which violates the terms of the proclamation of the 1st of May instant from these headquarters the office that of that paper will be taken possession of and its business conducted under direction of the United States authorities.

By command of Maj. Gen. Butler,

GEO. C. STRONG, A. A. General.

THE USE OF CONFEDERATE NOTES FORBIDDEN

On the same day the following order, forbidding the use of Confederate notes was issued by General Butler:

I.  It is hereby ordered that neither the city of New Orleans, nor the banks thereof shall exchange their notes, bills or obligations for Confederate notes, bills or bonds, nor issue any bill not or obligation payable in Confederate notes.

II.  On the twenty seventh day of May, instant, all circulation of, or trade in Confederate notes and bills will cease within this Department, and sales or transfers of property made on or after that day in consideration of such notes or bills, directly or indirectly will be void, and the property confiscated to the United States – one fourth thereof to go to the informer.

By command of Maj. Gen. Butler,

GEO. C. STRONG, A. A. G.,

Chief of Staff

THE OBSERVANCE OF JEFF. DAVIS’ FAST DAY FORBIDDEN

General Butler also issued the following order, prohibiting the observance of Jeff. Davis’ fast day:

HEADQUARTERS DEPT. OF THE GULF

New Orleans, May 13, 1862

It having come to the knowledge of the commanding General that Friday next is proposed to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer, in obedience to some supposed proclamation of one Jefferson Davis in the several churches of this city, it is ordered that no such observance be had.

Churches and religious houses are to be kept open as in times of profound peace, but no religious exercises are to be had upon the supposed authority above mentioned.

By command of Maj. Gen. Butler,

GEO. C. STRONG, A. A. General

THE WOMEN OF THE TOWN ORDER

The Herald correspondent says in relation to Gen. butler’s order that all women insulting the soldiers should be treated as “women of the town plying their avocations:”

“The order gives great satisfaction to the command to whom the conduct of the disloyal ladies of the city has become absolutely intolerable.  The Mayor and the violent secessionists received it in high dudgeon and the Mayor addressed the following letter on the subject to General Butler.  The order contains no reflections whatever on the virtue of New Orleans ladies but leaves their future reputation to their behavior after the date of the order.  A more effectual method of abating such an evil could not be devised, and I believe it will be entirely successful.  But here is the Mayor’s letter. –

STATE OF LOUISIANA, MAORALTY OF NEW ORLEANS,

May 16, 1862

Major Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, Commanding United States Forces

SIR – Your general order No. 28 of date 15th inst., which reads as follows – (here follows order 28, respecting ladies) – is of a character so extraordinary and astonishing that I cannot, holding the office of Chief Magistrate of this city, chargeable with its peace and dignity suffer it to be promulgated in our presence without protesting against the threat it contains, which has already aroused the passions of our people, and must exasperate them to a degree beyond control.  Your officers and soldiers are permitted, by the terms of this order to place any construction they may please upon the conduct of our wives and daughters, and upon such construction, to offer them atrocious insults.  The peace of the city and the safety of your officers and soldiers from harm or insult have, I affirm, been successfully secured to an extent enabling them to move through our streets almost unnoticed, according to the understanding and agreement entered into between yourself and the city authorities.  I did not however anticipate a war upon women and children, who, so far as I am aware, have only manifested their displeasure at the occupation of their city by those whom they believe to be their enemies and I will never undertake to be responsible for the peace of New Orleans while such an edict, which infuriates our citizens, remains in force.  To give a license to the officers and soldiers of your command to commit outrages such as are indicated in your order upon defenseless women is, in my judgment a reproach to the civilization not to say to the Christianity, of the age, in whose name I make this protest.

I am sir, your obedient servant,

JOHN T. MONROE, Mayor.

To this disrespectful letter Gen. Butler vouchsafed the following unequivocal answer:

HEAD QUARTERS DEP’T OF THE GULF,

NEW ORLEANS, May 16, 1862

John T. Monroe late Mayor of the City of New Orleans, is relieved from all responsibility for the peace of the city, and is suspended from the exercise of any official functions, and committed to Fort Jackson until further order.

B. F. BUTLER,

Major General Commanding.

THE ARREST OF MAYOR MONROE OF NEW ORLEANS

Correspondence of the N. Y. Herald

NEW ORLEANS, May 17.

Since my last letter a number of prominent citizens have been arrested and sent to Fort Jackson.  The most notable are John T. Monroe, Mayor of New Orleans, D. G. Duncan, the Mayor’s Private Secretary, John McClellan, Chief of Police, Judge Kennedy, Lucien Adams, Recorder in the Fourth District, and Benj. S. Harrison, formerly a member of the City Council.  Mr. Mazarat, Lieutenant of Police, was ordered under arrest, but the order was afterwards rescinded.

These arrests are peculiarly grateful to the respectable portion of this community, as all of them but Judge Kennedy have long been in notoriously bad odor.  The Mayor and his clique have been doing their utmost by covert measures to harass and impede General Butler in promoting a friendly feeling towards the United States Government, and they have placed an injurious construction on almost every step that the General has taken.  Last Saturday morning after the Mayor had the day previous apologized for his insolent, insulting letter to General Order No. 28, regarding the conduct of the women he again called at headquarters for the purpose of withdrawing his apology or obtaining a modification of the order.  Gen. Butler told him unequivocally that he had nothing to modify; that he was not sorry for what he had written, that he would not withdraw it if he could, and could not if he would, but, at the request of the Mayor, the General gave him permission to publish the offensive letter and the apology, and to add that the order applied only to those women who had insulted by word, look, or gesture the officers of soldiers of the United States army.  He also told him that he could append to the correspondence the startling fact that “water is wet” and “blackbirds are black” – a delicate piece of satire that I fear was entirely lost upon the obtuse intelligence of the magistrate.  After an explanation from the General that would have been thoroughly clear to the comprehension of a child, the Mayor left, apparently satisfied, but Saturday night he again sent the General a letter, the counterpart of the first.  Yesterday morning he was again at headquarters with several of his friends, including Judge Kennedy, John McClellan, Chief of Police, and D. G. Duncan.  The mayor demanded the right to withdraw his apology, and Gen. Butler granted it, but informed Mr. Mayor that he had played with the United States authority long enough, and now he had to go to Fort Jackson.  The other parties named above, admitting their approval of the Mayor’s conduct, were also sent to Fort Jackson.

In addition to the Mayor’s conduct in regard to Order No. 28, he has been guilty in conjunction with other members of the city government, of giving material aid and comfort to the enemy since our occupation, and the Monroe Guard – of which I have an account in my letter of the 10th – expected (and probably with reason) that he would pay handsomely for the “honor” paid him in selecting his name for the corps.  The General announced to the above gentlemen that he should hold them as hostage for the good behavior of the city.

Ben Harrison and Lucien Adams are chiefs of the “Thugs,” had have been the most relentless persecutors of Union men.  Their arrest will enable descent people to sleep more securely at night.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, June 7, 1862, p. 1

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler: General Orders, No. 28, May 15, 1862

GENERAL ORDERS, No. 28}

HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,               

New Orleans, May 15, 1862.

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.

By command of Major-General Butler:

GEO. C. STRONG,               

Assistant Adjutant General and Chief of Staff.

SOURCE: The War Of The Rebellion: A Compilation Of The Official Records Of The Union And Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume 15 (Serial No. 21), p. 426