Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1871-03-08
WHOLE NUMBER l25l
s.BEAST BUTLER.S
His Inhuman Conduct Toward Southern
Ladies.

His lnhunlln COnuuct lOWarI southern
Ladies.
1t y, perhaps, unnecessary to remark
chat Gen. Butler Was once in command
at New Orleans. Equally useless is it to
say that little good of him was written
or thought durisg his administration, and
that his ''treatment" OF southern ladies
was described by adjectives of very Sc
we're import.
St. Michael's is the name of a pretty
little village not hundreds of miles north
Of New O.eans, on the Mississippi,
which in war was limited to a Convent OF
the Sacred Heart. that formed a favorite
school for the daughters of the rebels of
that section. Perhaps dozen of dwell
ings surrounded this main feature q the
place. and St. Michael's was rebel from
rim to core Mother Shannon was the
abbess of the convent and superior OF
:he school She and her daughter in
religion" certainly sharedtbe anti Yankee
sentiment; but, holding old-time notions
of their sphere in political broils, they
were not loud in the utterance of their
thoughts. This did not keep famine from
the convent door, however; there came
day when the store-house was barren
as Southern field trodden by Morgan :
Cavalry. If the nuns uttered b,R mat
that night, it must have been exquisitely
spiritual.
A loud knocking resounded at the gate,
and messenger appeared, startled and
breathless. a deputation from Donald
sonville. dozen miles northward on the
river, from the house of the Sisters of
Charity, waited to know if u re Shan
non would receive the sisters and their
thirty orphan girls, whose asylum had
succumbed to the fortunes of war, and
who were houseless and hungry at Don
aldsonvile Mother Shannon is a brave
woman, but she blanched little.
".kon Dieu, it is impossible. We have
no food New Orleans is under Geuel al
Butler, and communication with the city,
so far as the supplies are concerned, is
beyond my power Much as l may re-
gret it."
But she could not send the refusal
The Sisters and their whole flock of or
phans were soon within St Michael 5
walls. Mother Shannon sat at her desk
and wrote something ike this E.;
Sir: We have no food, but have or
phans. Inclosed is draft for $4,000
and an order we desire to have filed, with
your permission, at New Orleans"
A faithful colOred man was the drputa-
tion who bore this document to Beast
Butler. The General asked few ques-
tons, the contraband proved intelligent,
and the Beast learned the situation. a
day or two later supply train reached
St. Michael :, and the messenger was in
trusted with a note from the Beast which
read something like this:
Madam: | am sincerely sorry you
and your charge should suffer innocently
by this cruel war. Should other mis-
fortunes reach you, please inform me at
once
The supplies sent were found to tejust
double the quantity of each article order
ed and although the draft was not re-
turned, So 900 in cash came in its place,
and supported the thirty orphans through
later and more bitter time. Few knew
of this action of Gen. Butler, and he
never told it. On many succeeding oc-
casions he was called upon in the same
straightforward, womanly way for aid
and protection, and in every instance
were both given. justly and with the
courtesy of the gentleman. The chill
dren of rebel soldiers, fallen on the wrong
side of a cruel war, had reason to know
what a strange kind of Beast" Butler
was at New Orleans, and the nuns no.
tions of Yankees were materially modi-
fed. Mother Shannon's idea became
gradually. "When General Butler finds
Southern ladies who do not forget that
they are such, they find General Butler
a Chicago Ecening Post.