Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-02-09
The Epitaph General Butler
Wants.

On the 25th ult. General BUTLER made a
speech at Lowell, Mass, in which he gave
an account of the management of his de-
partment. In the speech, he uses this Ian
guage:
81 Understand that there are those who
were among my old friends I'm politics, but
who, unfortunately, have lately gone upon
the other side, who sneer at me as the hero
of Big Bethel and Fort Fisher. accept the
title; they do me honor overmuch. What
was Big Bethel? 1t was skirmish, in
which twenty-five men were killed and
wounded. But Big Bethel was not Bull
Run. Big Bethel was not Fair Oaks. Big
Bethel was not Seven Pines. Big Bethel
was not the Chickahominy. Big Bethel
was a failure, but it was no disaster. No
West Point General commanded there. /
claim credit for this-that when we of the
volunteer army of the United States make
failures, we do not make disasters. Stop a
moment and compare the battles l have
named with Big Bethel Why, at these
there were more men slaughtered, and
homes made desolate, than there were
leaves on the trees and the forests around
Big Bethel not to be numbered. But am
the hero of Fort Fisher, too. Well, Fort
Fisher was not Fredericksburg; Fort Fisher
was not Charlottesville; Fort Fisher was
not the Wilderness; Fort Fisher was not
Cold Harbor. A volunteer General COM
manded at Fort Fisher at each attack. One
was without result, but no disaster. The
last was a success. All honor to General
Terry and his brave volunteer soldiers.
"Again, it is charged upon us that we did
not make so big a hole in the Dutch Gap ca
nal as we ought to have made. 1t may be that
we. did not, although the Dutch Gap canal,
a aIr.ac lar hrIo IL.
by the explosion of the mine at Petersburg,
last summer; but, thank God, neither did
we fill uselessly that hole up with American
dead until it ran blood. Renewed ap-
plause.l | am, therefore, content-nay, l
claim to be the hero of the comparatively
bloodless attacks on Big Bethel, and the
wholly bloodless failure of Fort Fisher; and
though do not claim to be the source of
fredericksburg, OF Charlottesville, of the
Chickahominy, of the Wilderness, of Cold
Harbor, nor of that charnel-house of useless
dead in the mine before Petersburg, i am
prepared to take the issue, and hereafter,
fell0w-citiZens, when you bear me to that
little inclosure on the other side of the river,
which hope for as my last resting place,
pray you put over me for my epitaph: "Here
lies the General ,cho sdved The AUes Of his men
at Big Bethel and Fort Fisher, and toho never
commanded the Army of the Potomac" ! ask
for nothing else. [Great applauser''
1t matters not in what estimation the
character Of General BUTLER is held by a
large portion of this country, and through
out the civilized world, the sentiment of
the epitaph he desires placed over his grave
when he is dead, deserves commentator.
General BUTLER processes to feel that the
slaughter Of our brave men in useless en-
terprize confers no honor on him under
whose direction it takes place-that in the
great hereafter the name of him who inter-
posed to oprevent such slsughterwill receive
the fervent blessings of mankind. We
wish that President LINCOLN could be
brought to realize this fact. If he were in
duced to feel thus, there might be hope that
the War would be brought to termination
without the slaughtering Of many more
American citizens. The presumption is
that Gen. BUTLER's sense Of honor IL not
the most refined, and would not, therefore,
be over solicitous as to the kind OF epitaph
that should bepu over his grave; but when
he covets honor for. bloodless achievements,
instead Of for great battles, in which thou
sands Of American citizens have been man
gled and killed, how great will be the satis-
flctiop Of him who, never countenanced
measures that have lead to such slaughter
ings! sxS .fketxz<E szsg kFe