The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-04-27
Rntler the RnttIed.

Butler the Bottled.
As the materials for such history are sud
denly recalled by the interesting announcement,
the memory iairly reyels in the daring exploits
the illue;rious Butler would nave to recount.
Who that has had the good fortune to see the
renowned warrior can ever forget his martial
presence-the commanding port, the heavy,
dropping lids; the power of cross-questioning
possessed by those remarkable eyes, the visage
saturnine, the head venerabiy bald, the alder
manic proportions of the gastronomic region,
and the portentous cooked hatY Who does
not know that his lighting qualities were only
eclipsed by his epistolary looseness? Great
as PanuTge was among 'the turred law cats,o
Butler was yet greater than he: Great as
Caster was among the Gatherings, Butler
eXcelled him. Gargantua could comb cannon
balls out ol hrs hair, but Butler launched thun-
der word'. He fought a sanGuinary bat
tie in a military despatch and daringly
forced, with a squadron of colored cavalry, so
turbulent a river as the sleepy Chckahominy,
in the face OF an enemy that was nowhere to be
seen. Created a brigader-general for distn-
gushed gallantry at the Charleston Convention,
he speedily proved himself worthy of the honor
conferred upon him. The first theatre of his
exploits was Maryland, and his first baltng
place the Relay House. The heights in the
vicinity he seized by coup de man, gallantly
turned his cannon on the villa residences of
merchants and professional men, aud soon
aiterW ards humanely 1Htimated his intention
to introduce poison into every household if
any more OF his men died OF the Towel COM
plant, We pass by the very admirable manner
In which a little after he stole a night march
into Baltimore, transcolded the rugged cliis
OF FeGeIal Hill, and darngly established his
camp under protection of the guns of Fort
Mchenry; but nothing short Of pictorial repre-
sentation would do justice TO that memorable
exhibition Of horsemanship with which, after
liberal hbations 10 Bacchus he astonished, at a
subsequent PERIOD the spectators in front of the
Gilmor House. Such precious services indicated
the propriety of his removal TO another sphere
of action, where his great military skill and his
scope He was accordingly honored with the
grade of Maior-General and ordered to take
command at Fortress Monroe. His brilliant
strategy soon made itself once more appa-
lent in that glorious campaign which re-
suited in the capture of pump at Hampton;
but the splendor OF his genius was not fully de-
yeloTed until the memorable battle at Big Bethel.
On that notable occasion the retiring nature OF
the man was not more conspicuous than the cour-
age he displayed IN generously concedmg to his
lieutenants the conduct OF the ight whilst he re-
NAMED at headquarters to chronicle the result.
After the battle his daring conduct in putting
himself at the head ol the fugitlves and strag
glers, and animatng them, by personal example,
to retreat to place OF safety, elected the praise
OF little army of newspaper correspondents,
who first discovered in HIM, during this mas
terly movement that faculty of ubiquity on
which they subsequently, dilated in such roman
tic terms The next chapter in this eventlul
history shifts to New Orleans. FarraguG had
cleared the passage OF the Mississippi, and
DullCI, OIuGItu W IudJ DGpdI lOllOWCu III
bloodless triumph to clutch the spois. The
task, though arduous, was congenial, and he
found himself equal to the occasion. With that
profound aversion to meet armed men at close
quarters, which, throughout the whole war,
formed prominent trait iu the character OF this
remarkable man, he yet painted to distinguish
hims, II by reaping glory from achievements not
much dissmar from those that have gwen inn
mortality to the name OF Haynau. 1t was in this
field Of chiyalrous adventure that Butler deter
mined to gather laurels. The ambition was
worthy of him. He was bent upon proving to the
world that tenderness to q woman is an anti
quated virtue, and that however much a fine
devotion to the sex may have chastened the
ruder manners of the bearded warriors of the
feudal ages. ii was altogether unworthy OF con-
sideration in these days OF Puritan enlighten-
ment He succeeded to marvel; and he sue
ceeded also in raising up host of laudators at
the North, who were proud OF his skill as a dia-
lectician, and who glOred in his open contempt
for all those old fashioned amenities which, In
the midst OF war, exempted mothers and daugh-
teIs from insult and injury. But of this flower
of chivalry, this pink of courtesy, this opposite
to Bayard, Du Guesclin, and Sidney, why should
we trace the career from its fitting commence
ment to its fitting close? Dutch GAP remains a
monument of his engineering skill. City Point
is witness how valorously he suffered himself
to be corked up and hermetrically sealed be-
tween two rivers. The powderboat whose eX-
posiOn was to PROSTATE the earthworks of Fort
Fisher as q blast of rams horns toppled
down the walls of Jericho, was the offspring of
nls sagacty; Dut MS croWnlng glory is tnat, Wnen
he discovered that the earthW works would not
tumble to pieces, and that the men behind
them we're bent on doing him mischief, he
consulted the prudence which is the better part
OF valor, and re-embarked his forces, thankful
that he had thus got rid ot set of truculent fel-
lows. We trust, then, that General Butler is
really engaged in writing "a complete history of
his military career" The world might we'll miss
many truer book. Nor need he fear that he
will lack admirers. Giuseppe Balsamo, Count of
Caglostro, numbered among his disciples o
Prince of the House OF Rohan, and even Ferdi-
nand Mendez Pinto, whom Congreve has handed
down to posterity as "a liar OF the first magni-
| tude," found in his day not few believers.
After these examples, surely General Butler
need not despair of niche in the pantheon of
history that shall be worthy OF his peculiar re-
Baltimore Gazette.