Butler, Benjamin Franklin

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Benjamin Franklin Butler
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    North
    Origins
    Free State
    No. of Siblings
    4
    Family
    John Butler (father), Charlotte Ellison (mother), Sarah Hildreth (wife, 1844)
    Education
    Other
    Other Education
    Waterville College, ME
    Occupation
    Politician
    Military
    Attorney or Judge
    Businessman
    Relation to Slavery
    White non-slaveholder
    Military
    Union Army

    Benjamin Franklin Butler (Congressional Biographical Directory)

    Reference
    BUTLER, Benjamin Franklin,  (grandfather of Butler Ames and father-in-law of Adelbert Ames), a Representative from Massachusetts; born in Deerfield, N.H., November 5, 1818; moved with his mother to Lowell, Mass., in 1828; attended high school and Exeter Academy, and was graduated from Waterville College (now Colby College), Waterville, Maine, in 1838; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1840 and commenced practice in Lowell, Mass.; member of the State house of representatives in 1853; served in the State senate in 1859; delegate to the Democratic National Conventions at Charleston and Baltimore in 1860; entered the Union Army April 17, 1861, as a brigadier general; promoted to major general May 16, 1861, and assigned to the command of Fort Monroe and the Department of Eastern Virginia; resigned November 30, 1865; elected as a Republican to the Fortieth and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1867-March 3, 1875); chairman, Committee on Revision of the Laws (Forty-second Congress), Committee on the Judiciary (Forty-third Congress); one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1868 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against Andrew Johnson, President of the United States; unsuccessful candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor in 1871 and 1872 and for reelection to the Forty-fourth Congress in 1874; elected to the Forty-fifth Congress (March 4, 1877-March 3, 1879); declined to be a candidate for renomination; unsuccessful candidate for Governor as an independent in 1878 and as a Democrat in 1879; elected Governor in 1882 by the combined efforts of the Greenback and Democratic Parties; unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States on the Greenback and Anti-Monopolist ticket in 1884; died while attending court in Washington, D.C., January 11, 1893; interment in Hildreth Cemetery, Lowell, Mass.
    "Butler, Benjamin Franklin," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B001174.
    Date Event
    Benjamin Butler booed off the stage at Democratic meeting in Lowell, Massachusetts
    Three new federal army departments are formed
    Union troops seize and fortify the Relay House on the Baltimore and Washington Railroad in Maryland
    Union General Benjamin Butler declares slaves as "contraband of war"
    In York County, Virginia, Confederate troops repulse a Union attack at the Battle of Big Bethel
    - In North Carolina, a combined federal army and navy operation bombards and captures coastal forts
    Union infantry arrives at Ship Island, Mississippi in the first build-up of forces intending to capture New Orleans
    President Lincoln forms two new Army Departments in the South
    In Louisiana, a helpless New Orleans resists Union demands for its capitulation
    In a defiant New Orleans, a mob tears down a Union flag hoisted over the U.S. Mint
    Major General Benjamin Butler begins his notorious eight months as military governor of New Orleans
    In Union occupied New Orleans, William B. Mumford goes on trial for pulling down an American flag
    In Union occupied New Orleans, William B. Mumford is hanged for treason
    The War Department decides that Generals Fremont and McClellan outrank General Benjamin Butler
    - Confederate infantry beat back a Union reconnaissance-in-force across the Rapidan at Morton's Ford
    - In Virginia, Union attacks at Chaffin's Farm tighten the ring around Petersburg
    Volunteer Generals Butler and Dix end their Civil War military service
    In a Cleveland, Ohio speech, Benjamin Butler threatens President Johnson with impeachment.
    Date Title
    Boston (MA) Advertiser, “Impotent Rage,” May 27, 1861
    Chicago (IL) Tribune, “Army Slave Catching,” May 28, 1861
    New York Herald, “Our Fashionable Summer Resorts,” June 2, 1861
    Brigadier General John W. Phelps, Proclamation to "The Loyal Citizens of the Southwest," December 4, 1861
    Mayor John T. Monroe to Flag-Officer David Farragut
    Major General Benjamin F. Butler, Proclamation to the Citizens of New Orleans, May 1, 1862
    Abraham Lincoln to Reverdy Johnson, Washington, DC, July 26, 1862
    Reverdy Johnson to Abraham Lincoln, Friday, September 05, 1862
    Abraham Lincoln, Reply to Emancipation Memorial Presented by Chicago Christians of All Denominations, September 13, 1862
    Abraham Lincoln to George Foster Shepley, November 21, 1862
    New York Herald, “The Pen and the Sword,” May 17, 1863
    Abraham Lincoln to Isaac Newton Arnold, May 26, 1863
    Ruben F. Briggs to Abraham Lincoln, Tuesday, March 15, 1864, New Orleans, Louisiana
    Cleveland (OH) Herald, “Justice to Colored Soldiers,” May 2, 1864
    Entry by Edward Bates, August 4, 1864
    Editorial, "Grant's Negro Troops," Chicago Tribune, April 8, 1865
    Philadelphia (PA) North American, "Reception of Colored Troops," November 15, 1865
    Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, "Generals Meade and Butler on Negro Soldiers," November 25, 1865
    John H. Brinton to Andrew Johnson, West Chester, Pennsylvania, February 14, 1866
    How to Cite This Page: "Butler, Benjamin Franklin," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/12201.