The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1867-12-09

DS OL8SA "
General Butler: -
"HRkDuUAarExs pErARTTs N uIaaiSIA
uApux or Tgg JAMSa In THE fIsLD..c II
| MvfRaYSIA, November 25 1864.
snecial Orders No. 373. Is. I'D. ii.
nDayid b. White, late Major Of the New
! Work. Volunteers, who has left the service,
cannot be elected as sutler in this depart
ment. Field officers leaving the service
voluntarily cannot take the place of boot
blacks here. If they have no, more respect
for the service which they have left, they
will find that officers here have. David B.
White will at once leave this department.
"By command of Major General Butler.
[Oficial.l EDWARD W. SMITH, :
,rv-n, Assistant Adiutant- General.",.
This order tells its own story. But an
expulsion from Buffers command that's
a thing to be remembered. 1t reminds us
of the drumming out of private Of the
Public Guard in this city many years
since. He. was escorted by aguard and a
drummer and fifer playing the Rogue's
March to, the southern end of Mayo's
bridge, where he was left to himself, while
his escort returned to the barracks. He
turned about, looked at them, and with
folded arms, said to himself: "Well, if
am not fit for such a company as that, what
the HI am fit for ?" !,
Let us see now what the Reverend Major
White is fit for. Leaving General Buffers
army, we have no knowledge of him until
this year, when he was very busily en-
gagged as presiding elder Of the Methodist
Church 1--WE suppose northern and negro
of the, Peninsula, He found time in the
midst of. his devotion to the service of
God to teach his flock political doctrines,
and assist in bringing them up in the Radi-
cal Church. When the campaign for the
Convention began he did not, consider
service in the capitol and six, seven, eight
ent with his religious duties, and desiring
very much to helpto ''shape Our desti.
MES "a desire quite general among the
Yankees who followed the army into Vir-
GINA and remained here-he declared him.
self candidate for the county of Eliza
beth City, and received the nomination of
the Radical Convention. .T w@ IS
The Reverend. Major was, indeed, doing
much etter business generally than black
ing boots in Buffers camp, and was getting
on swimmiDgly. Unfortunately for him,
in an evil hour he undertook journey to
Williamsburg to support the claims of Mr..
Attorney General Bowden, who was a
candidate for the Convention from that
district in opposition to Doctor Norton
(colored), who had been an especial friend
of the Reverend Major, and at whose house
he had been frequently entertained. I'D
Il IN hn dow of ha In
crowd was present. 1t was arranged that
the leader Of the debate should conclude
with a. reply to the person who followed
him. Norton opened the ball. The re-
verend gentleman who followed made an
effort to unhorse Norton by personal at
tack. Charging that Norton was endea-
lvoring to run in as negro, and by raising
the question Of class, he said it would be
| more wise to support Mr.. Bowden, a white
man, who sustained the rights of the freed
men, and knew what to do to protect them.
But Norton, he said, was not true to his
race-he was their enemy. While ap-
pealing to them and pretending to support
their interests he desired to change his re-
lations-to put away his colored wife and
marry white woman in Washington. This
White said he knew to be 50.
| Norton, greatly excited, replied that he
| had appealed to his own race, as he had q
right to do. They were free, and were
entitled not only to vote, but to hold office,
and this he wanted to see them assert.
But what White said about his desiring to
desert his wife and marry white woman
was lie land here Norton placed a
clenched fist nigh unto the proboscis Of
the reverend gentleman). 1t was lie,
and his accuser knew it. Norton then eX-
pressed his surprise that man who had SO
often been sheltered under his roof and fed
at his board should assail him in this man
ner. White had made his home stopping
place in his route from Hampton to Will
| liamsburg, as it was halt way between them.
| He (White) had praised the housekeeping
of the woman he had abused; for any man
who accused him of inidelity abused his
better half. White had praised her clean
white sheets and her nice biscuits. He
had slept between these sheets, and not
satisfied with that, had insisted that he
(Norton) should sleep with him; and to
crafty him, he had done so. After all
this, White had become his slanderer.
White never failed to admire his Nor
ton's) fine mare, and to express his
desire to own her-always wanted to
swap: a thing he (Norton) was lit
tie "jubrous about, being afraid he
would be cheated He would sleep and
eat with White, but he couldn't bring
himself to swap horses with him During
his remarks he often looked sharply upon
his assailant, and displayed stout clinched
fist that could not be contemplated with
entire composure. Mending his assault,
he informed W ite that he had undertaken
to print newspaper, and protested to have
bought materials for it that he (Norton)
had aided him to raise subscriptions to the
paper; but there had never been any
paper printed, and he wanted to know
what had become of the moneys No re-
spouse from White. Norton continued
for some time to pile up invective upon
White until, satisfied, he sat down.
White, smartly damaged in the estima-
ton of those present, and considerably
hacked, arose to reply, when the brother
of Norton denied his right to speak under
the agreement. This brought on words,
and White struck him with a stick. The
scene that followed is, indescribable. In
stantly sticks were presented with the
promptness and altogether action worthy
of a, "present arms " Of the best drilled
corps, and several being in the act of
coming down on Whites devoted head,
that gentleman cleared the house through
the window, and fed with a speed that
caused his coat tail to stand off so straight
that chickens might have roasted upon it.
The negroes. followed with startling cries
| of "kiI him !" "kill him !" This in