The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1883-10-17
An Episode of the Rebellion.

The treatment of the Seventh Vermont
regiment by General Butler was recalled
last fall by the presentation to the state
of portrait of Colonel Roberts, its la
mented commander. Senator Hogan, an
officer of the Seventh, made the presenta
ton speech and expressed all gallant
and great hearted soldiers bitter resent
ment Of the deep indiguity put upon his
comrades in war time by the present gov
ernor of Massachusetts. At the banquet
at the officers reunion, little later, Col
onel Holbrook, who succeeded Colonel
Roberts, in language into which was
breathed something of the vigor and
freshness of the indignation aroused by
the infliction of unmerited and disgrace
full punishment, denounced General But
Ter for willful and unrequited injustice to
this regiment. Colonel Albert Clarke, in
a recent letter to the Boston Journal, thus
recounts this affair:
"Your forcible, but Just, criticism Of Cen
eral Butler for maligning the forty-fifth Mas
sachusetts regiment as he did in his Faneui
Hall speech prompts me to bring before the
public his still more outrageous treatment of
the Seventh Regiment after the battle of Baton
Rouge. He was in command at New Orleans
a safe distance from the battle Verbal reports
reached him that the Seventh Vermont had
fled inglOriously in the action and abandoned
their colors, which were brought off by an
Irish Sergeant Of a Massachusetts battery. Co
lionel Roberts OF the Seventh was killed in the
engagement and Lieutenant Colonel Holbrook
was in command of the skrmish line. A few
days later Colonel Holbrook who had sue.
ceeded to the command, and had heard of the
intention to disgrace his regiment, went and
saw General Butler. The General told him
that he had received "official reports" of the
fact that the regiment had careessly fired into
an Indiana regiment and had retreated in
cowardly manner, abandoning its colors, and
that he was about to issue an order of censure
and reproach. Colonel Holbrook, with sur
prise and indignation, heard and denied the
| imputations, and assured the General that
there was some mistake that he had been mis-
led, probably by somebody who owed the regi-
ment a grudge; that the only truth In it all
was that In dense fog the regiment did fire
into an Indiana regiment which, unknown TO
them, was engaging the enemy in their front;
and that at a LATER stage, under orders from
some general officer, the regiment retreated,
| but In good order, TO position where 1t could
| do more effective service. So he mplored the
| General not to commit the folly and wrong of
stigmatizing the regiment until he had ordered
and had an investigation. But the General had
made up his mind, and he issued the order.
Thereupon Colonel Holbrook, through military
channels, asked the secretary OF war to order
a court of inquiry, and the legislature of Yer
mont adopted joint resolution, drawn and Of
fered by Senator Edmunds, then member of
the state senate, demanding" of the gem
eral government the investigation sought by
the regiment. The court was ordered and was
| a0natitutad nf offipara undar Eanaral n,t
command. After most thorough trial thew
found and reported that the regiment did not
run, but behaved most CALAMITY under very
trying circumstances, that they were not cui-
pable in firing upon the Indiapians, that they
did not lose or abandon their colors, which