New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1861-08-12
nRIaaprEs GENERAL BUTLER.


BRIGADfER GENERAL BUTLER.
L
The Individual who SO fercely demanded the
name Of the man who struck his friend Billy Pat
terson but quietly subsidized the moment the guilty
offender ayowed himself, finds his counterpart in
that great warrior, Picayune Butler. When Batler
first went to Fortress Monroe, he went as roaring
lion, ready to devour the whole State of Virginia
/ at one meal, and then lick his chops and call for
more. He was going to march through the State,
| capture and hang JET. Davis and all the othe:
Rebels, run up the Federal flag atop the Capitol at
/ Richmond, and laugh laugh of stern defiance at
all the South I, and the rest of mankind" He called
| for the man who should dare to oppose him, and
very much to his surprise, Magruder stepped for.
ward. Since then, he has been as innocuotls and
administrative as the famous friend of the bat.
tered Patterson.
ANY one can see by looking at the map that the
easiest nearest, ana cheapest way for hostile
army to approach Richmond is by way of York
River. That river is navigabe for the largest
ships of the Federal Navy up to within thirty or
forty miles Of Richmond. Fortress Monroe, an
impregnable fertilization, stands near where York
| River debonches into Chesapeake Bay, and bet.
| ter base Of operations could not be desired For
| number Of troops he may desire at his command,
and as many vessels Of the Navy as he might call
for. Yet, for three long, weary months, he has
shut himself up in his fort, like rat in hole,
scareely>dafing to peep out except on few oeea-
| sions to steal negroes or to make clandestine
| raid among the pigs, chickens and potato patches
of the neighboring farmers.
/ If Butler means fight, why is it that fight can
/ not be got out Of him If he means peace, why
/ does he not evaouate the fort and betake himself
1 to his former residence among the shoemakers and
considerations of his native Massachusetts,?
Magrader has offered him fight over and over
again. He has dared him out of his hole, and al
most shook his fist in his face, time and time again
He has insulted and aggravated him in every CON
ceiVable mode, but Buffers courage, like Bob
Acres, continues to ooze out at the palms of his
hands Private adyices represent that Magruder
has been, for weeks, the maddest man on the
American Continent because Butler Will not accent
his challenge.
Of course it would be folly for our side to make
the attack, even were there any obligation on us
to do so. The whole Confederate Army could not
reduce the fort into possession the strongest for
ticaton, it is, in the eouatry, and protected by
Fort Calhoun as we'll as the guns of the Federal
feet. Equally rash and useless would be an adj
vance upon the enemy at Newport News. There,
also, we would fight at every disadvantage, against
both land and water forces. We have only asked
fair fight in an open fieid-hut fair fight in an
open field is what the Massachusetts Brigadier re-
fuses to give us. No amount of provocaton can
bring him up to the scratch m.
The telegraph informs US that by order of Gen.
Magruder the town Of Hampton has been burned.
Hampton is between the fort and Newport News,
and the residents have all left it. 1t was nothing
but nest for the Federais, who amused themselves
by breaking into the houses and destroying tile
furniture. BY burning 1t Magiuder only does what
the Federals have been gradually doing ever since
they have been in the neghhorhood. Instead of
permitting them to burn down the houses singIy,
Magruder gives the whole town to the flames, and
thus breaks up at once the halfway house between
the two divisions Of the Federal forces. Even this
docs not appear to have provoked Butler to fight.
Hampton is in full view of the fort and within
range of its heaviest guns The defiance of burn.
ing the town before Buffers eyes does not stimu-
late that great political and martial hero even to
the firing Of hostile gun. If there is any logic in
facts, the proof is irresistible that BrigaderGen-
eral Butler, of Massachusetts,, is a coward.
But Fortress Monroe can be taken-not directly
but indirectly. Washington city is worth more to
the Federalists than the fort; ana the possession
of Washington by our troops would do more to
give us the command of the outlet of hampton
Roads than anything else. If Washington would
not do, perhaps Philadelphia, if thrown in, would
turn the scale. Fort Monroe can be captured but
it must be captured vcariously. If we should hold
Washington until the fort were delivered up to u.s.
its open portals would soon invite our peaceable
approach.