Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1871-02-03
Gen. Bntler at New Orleans.

~~~@~@C~
We are going to write true story and
new one. The subject Is not very new,
and yet not old 1t is middle aged-Ben.
iamin f. Butler. We learned the facts
from source whose integrity is truth
ITSELF and although the General may have
forgotten it-it was never before in print
the ladies have not. The ladies2 Yes,
there are ladies in 1t.
II is, perhaps, unnecessary TO remark that
General Butler was once in command at
New Orleans. Equally uselessis II TO say that
little good of him was written OF thought
during his administration of that incorrig-
able department, and that his treatment"
of Southern ladies' was described by ad-
iectives of very severe import. Malig-
nance in its worst form found vent at his
expense, Beast Butler was the term by
which he and his alleged character were
best known in those days, both in the
North and South.
st. Michael's is the name of a pretty
little village not hundreds of miles north
of New Orleans on the Mississippi, which
in war days was limited TO a convent of
the Sacred Heart, that formed favorite
school for the daughters of the rebels of
the section. Perhaps a dozen dwellings
surrounded this Manufacture of the place,
and st. Michael's was rebel from rim 10
core Mother Shannon was the Abbess of
the convent and the Superior of the school.
| She and her daughters in religion" GER
tainly shared the anti Yankee sentiment
which so sadly strove to ruin them and us
in common chaos but, holding old-time
notions of woman's sphere in political
broils, they were not loud in the utterance
of their thoughts. This did not keep fam
inc from the convent door, however;
there came day when the storehouse was
barren as Southern field trodden by Nor
gan's cavalry. The larder shelves were
on line impartially horizontal neither
| fruit nor fish, nor flesh nor cereal bore
them down to the accustomed curve of
heaviness Hunger already stalked among
the houses of the villagers, and the fam
ished people gathered at the outer convent
gate, clamoring for food Mere Shannon
walked the cohvent, sad and prayerful,
| telling her beads. The silent, white-veiled
novices fitted about their usual duties,
asking not question, but wondering, per-
haps, how many fast days there would be
in the coming week. The serious black
wells still more thoughtful, gathered about
| Mere Shannon's chair, and reading the
query in her eyes, beheld no answer. If
the nuns uttered bon mot that night, it
must have been exquisitely spiritual.
A loud knocking resounded at the gate,
| anu a lhCoSOnSCi opPOoiONt ouhAbAcd ohN
breathless. A. deputation from Donald
sonville, dozen miles northward on the
river, from the house of the Sisters of
| Charity waited to know if Mere Shannon
would receive the sisters and their thirty
orphan girls, whose asylum had sue
cumbed to the fortunes of war, and who
were houseless and hungry at Donaldson
Vile Mother Shannon is a brave woman,
but she blanched little. The nuns were
astonished at the newly discovered dis
tress, and for the moment thought only of
miracle.
4" Mon Dieu," cried mother Shannon, cit
is impossiblel We have no food; New
Orleans is under General Butler, and
communication with the city, so far as the
supplies are concerned, is beyond my
power. Much as l may regret it"
But she could not send the refusal. The
sisters and their whole flock of orphans
were soon as comfortable within st.
Michael's walls as CHEEKY welcome and
kindly hands could make them. Mother
Shannon sat at her desk and wrote some
thing like this:
"Sir: We have no food, but we have
orphans. Inclosed is draft for $4,000
and an order we desire to have filled, with
your permission, at New Orleans"
A faithful colored man was the deputa-
ton who bore this document to Beast
Butler The General asked a few ques
tions; the contraband proved intelligent,
and the Beast learned the situation. A
day or two later a supply train reached
st. Michael's, 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 misfortunes
/ reach you, please inform me at once"
The supplies sent were found to be just
, double the quantity of each article ordered |;
and although the draft was not returned,
1000 in cash came in its place, and sup
! ported the thirty orphans through later
and more bitter times. Few knew of this
action of Gen. Butler, and he never told
it. On many succeeding occasions 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 children of rebel soldiers, fallen on
the wrong side of cruel war, had reason
to know what a strange kind of beast
Beast" Butler was at New Orleans, and
the nuns notions of " Yankees" were very
materially modified. Mother Shannon's
idea became gradually, when Gen. But
Ter finds Southern ladies who do not for
| get that they are such, they find Gen.
Butler a gentleman.-C chicago EUening
Post.