, 1863-05-02
CONDUCT or The WAR.
Gen. Butler Before the Conduct
of the War Committee.

OF the War Committee.
Gen. Butler Gives a Very Interest," |
ing Account Of His Recruiting
Business IN Louisiana.
issued IN order that any Confederate SOL
der who choEe to desert aud leave the rebel
army, might come into New Orleans aud rigis.
ter his nAme. There had come into New Or
leans, up 10 this time, something over GUY
men, who had been soldiers In tho Confed-
parolcd prisoners; 90 that had in New Or.
leans nearly twice as many men who had been
soldiers in the Confederate army, as had or
Uhien soldiers. ] had asked for leaTe, which
bad been granted, to recruit ny regiments.
recruited, in Louisiana, all Of my old reg1-
ments up to the full standard, ralsed two new
white regiments, and four companies OF cav
alry--ali Of men living In Louisiana, They
fought bravely at Baton Kouge: o1t It OF ioo
nearly eco Of them were recruits from LOU
isiana They, of course, were healthy men,
not having suffered the troubles either Of
Camp Parapet or VicksbuTg. I ordered
Of the provost fund to the widows and
mothers Of quite number Of Louisiana SOL
dicrs that were killed under our flag, because
! knew IT would take long time to get it
from Washington, and wanted to encourage
others tc enlist. The provost fund was made
up Of fines and forfeitures, sales of conllscated
property, and two dollars. charged for each
pask, &c, I asked for liberty to raise FIVE
thousand native Lonisianians, ndraised near
1y that number including recruits in the old
regiments. White recruiting began then to
FIJI of, because Of the higher wages beginning
10 bt paid for white labor on the plantations,
in order to sare the sugar crop where the ne
Esoes had left I had written to Washington
for reintorcemcnte, but they replied that they
could not giEe me any though they wrote that
must hold New Orleans at ali hazards. I de-
ternlined to do that, If for no other reason,
because the rebels had offered reward for my
! head, If they could catch me, aud It Wonld
have been rather inconTenient for me to have
lost it, White recruiting had come to an end,
! and could get no Eeintorcements from Wash.
! ington.
| Upon examining the records I found that
| Governor Moore. Of Louisiana. had raised
regiment Of free colored people, and organ
lied it and of1ccfed it.; and l found one Of
his commissions. I sent for colored man
rs an officer Of that reg iment, and got some
fifteen OF sixteen Of the officers together
bhck and mulatto, light and dark colored-
md asked them what they meant BY being
| organized under the rebels. They said they
had been ordered out, and could not retusr;
but that the rebels lad never trusted them
with ar1us. They had been drilled In compa-
NJ drill. ! asked them if thAt organization
could be resuscitated, provided they were
supplied with arms. They said that it could.
Very well, / said, then will resuscitate that
regiment Of Louisiana militia / tAereupon
Issued an order, stating the precedent fur
from that time had in that regiment thou
sand men, reasonably drilled and well disci
plincd; better disciplined than any other
regiment had there, because the blacks had
been always taught to do as they were told.
It WAS composed altogether Of free men; made
free under soIne law.
There was very large French and English
population in Louisiana. I asceEtaiuea that
neither French nor English law permitted
French or English subjects to hold slaves in q
foreign country; According to the French
foreigp county, forfeits his citizenship. Ac
cording to the British law, any Englishnlau
holding slaves in foreign country, forfeits
ElGO.
Ithereupon issued an order that every per
e0n shntltd register himself; the loyal rs 10y.
ii; French 6rbitcts rs French subjects; EHgiisl
subjects us English subjects, &c, under theil
own hands, 60 that there could be no mistake
in the books Of the Provost Marshal. THAI
was accordingly done.
then said to those who claimed to be
French and English subjects: "According te
The "a" Of the country, to which you claim
by tllis register, to owe allegiance, all the ne
grccs chained by you as Slaves are free, ant
bring free, I may enlist as many Of them as
p'case." And accordingly enlisted one reg
i1nent :l,d y part Of another from men in thai
condition. We had 1. great many diftlcultie'
about it. But the English Consul came fairl!
Up to the mark, and decided that the negroe:
claimed rs Slaves BY those who had Registered
themselves rs British subjects were all free
So that never enlisted Il slave. Indeed, i
was general order that no slave should b'
] erfsf,1
In the meantime, was informed, from
Washington, that It would be desirable tt
lave Congressional elections held in that par
Of Louisiana which was under onr control
The difficulty about that was, that New Or
| ltans vas divided iuto two election districts
The lower district was composed Of the lowe
part Of the city Of New Orleans, and all Of tn
State below the city. The other district com
posed the remainder Of New Orleans, and at
along the river above for sixty miles to Don
.. aldsonyife. I therefor sent an expedition
: under Gen. Weitze1, to Doun1dsonvillc, nnt
swept down through the country to Berwicl
Day drove out the enemy, who wcrc there IL
considerable force, and brought the whole Q
: that region, from one end to the other, within
the Union lines. I thus got Undcr the con
!" t1ol Of the American soldlery nearly the en-
; tire two DISTRICTS now represented by Mr
, Flanders and Mr.. Hahn. Gen. Shcpley, a
Military Governor, then issued Ills proclama
: ton for an election, In order that every mai
! in thuse districts should be alloTcd to rot
, who had taken the oath, and had the othc
qualifications prescribed By the laws of Lou
. isiana; and everybody did vote. There wer
!, seven candidates running in one district, an
u two III the otter.
: In taking possession Of that district, whic
0 had heretofore been In the possession Of til
: enemy, ne obtained possession OF region 9
9 country containing moro sugar plantation
It and more slayes than any other portion c
!: Louisiana. Some Il, 900, perhaps &c, 0,0o0 slave
y came, by that one expedition, under on
d control; and, as Congress had passed q la
J. declaring that all slaves held By rebels i
$ session, should be free, all those s1aves bs
g. came free. And I enlisted O third regimen
T. and two batteries of heavy artillery frol
among those negroes thus made free. Tw
Of these co1o7ca regiments were employed
guarding the Ope!ousas Railroad, rannin
from A!giers to Berwick Bay; aud when
s left there they were still thus employe,
IA For tho other regiments 1 had enlisted
ID found this use: The planters there, viii
ls some claimed to be loyal and some disloya
1e had come to the conclusion not to lay dow
# any "ratoons" Of sugar-canc, rs they q
s. called; that is, pieces Of cane are laid in IL
" ground in order to preserve their eyes fro
&c injury by frost, and when the season com
at they are planted aud the new cane springs I
Of from these eyes. They had come to the CO
b. preserve no seed for other crops, so that
I'd the Presidents proclamation Of Septemb
IT. should be followed, as they feared, BY one
'rt January. declaring the slaves free, they won
or throw them upon us, and We would In
ce nothing for them to do, and nothing for the
he 70 eat during the coming year from the czo1
oo therefore employed, for many weeks, the Ia
7e- regiment missed, in laying down caue-c.
la1 ting It down and layiug it in the ground
A. protect the eyes from the frost. And I ha
no doubt that in that way have made sufh
,e. ent provision for the coming corn crop up
by the plantations necessary to be worked by t
no Government; and also in preserving swt
LAT potatoes aud com for the next years. planti1
re 70 find employment and snstenance, If thE
he fifteen OF twenty thousand negroes should
nd / thrown upon us, provided we went no farth
is I turned over to my successor, Of soldi'
nd | 1850, including the black regiments, thou
lis had but Is, 100 TO start on
oel
N, Important Railway MoTcnleu
ort a Convention, embracing reprcscntati7
~ from large number Of the leading Railwa
m. WAS held In Buffalo on the a9th inst, to c.
slider the subject Of paying commissions
~ passenger traffic, md the proposed advance
~. rates upon emigrant travel. The meet
ct was called to order By N. Marsh, Esq., FRI
all dent OF the New York and Erie Railway,
les | whnsn mofinn Mr. Fnllctt. President of