The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-07-11
BUTLER In NEW ORLEANS
How the Expedition for the City's
Capture Was Organized.
The City's Secession Record The Hanging
of Mumford, and the Famous Order
About the Women.
Gath's New York Letter.

that it would take no such number. Sud
denly Mr.. Lincoln decided in favor of But
Ter. The government gave him about 5000
men, and they were rendevoused at Ship
Island. 1t cost 81 500, 900 for this expedition.
which had such extraordinary results. 1t is
said that as he left Washington, about the
oath of February, 1862, Butler said to Lin
coin, 'Good-by, Mr.. President. We shall
fake New Orleans, or you will never see me
again." Stanton then spoke up: "The man
who takes New Orleans is made a lieutenant
general" He sailed from Hampton Roads
on the steamship Mississippi, with 1,400 men
on board, and his wife at his side. She went
with him in all his campaigns as long as she
lived. Nobody in the country supposed
there was an expedition ready for New Or
leans. The rebels had been deceived with
the idea that it was to be attacked from
above, and not from below.
Did Butler take any further advanced
ground on the slavery question at Ship Is
and?''
Eyes, he Influenced his subordinate COM
mander who arrived there before him, Gen.
eral J. W. Phelps, to assail slavery as the bot
tom principle Of the rebellion. Free labor
and werkingmen's rights said Phelps. The
issuing of this proclamation caused Butler
to be denounced as a beast and the enemy of
human society all over the South. Butler
was thirty days getting to Ship Island, and
his wife was accommodated there in a board
shanty eighteen feet square. She lived there
among the flies in the intense heat without
complaint. While there they heard of the
Merrimac breaking loose from Norfolk and
sinking the Union vessels. Farragut, then
a captain, joined Butler, and the scheme of
Producing the forts below New Orleans was
matured. Before the expedition sailed a lot
of rebel gun-boats came out and attacked
some of Buffers people. Farrasut got over
the bar on the 18th of April, and Butler,
with 5000 troops, followed two days after
ward"
"How many vessels reduced the rebel
forts?'
''There were ferty-seven armed vessels in
all, a good many of them new and many
were mortar vessels. There were $40 mortars
in all. Farragut was then sixty-three years
old, and had been in the navy ever since his
eleventh year. After SIX DAYS commandment
the forts were hushed and Fsrragut then ran
by. 1t was almost the anniversary of the
m urder of the Massachusetts troops in Balti-
more, when the same Colonel Jones who led
them there started for New Orleans. Far
Fagut's fleet was already at anchor before
that city. Butler landed in the town on the
LIST of May"
How did New Orleans stand on the seces-
sion question at the beginning?'
"In 1856 it voted for Fillmore, and also
voted for John Bell, giving him nearly as
many votes as both Douglas and Breckin-
u OCClNCds Ii sugar lilCI was
much devoted to the Union, on &C.
count. of the protection it received.
After secession was accomplished, however,
the cewardly perpetrators of it began
to drive out Union men and women, too.
There was a fierce, low creole element in the
place fend of assassinating. After the forts
were passed the thugs undertook to burn the
city. Twiggs, the renegade, started to run
away. They burned Is, 900 bales of cotton,
twenty steamers, vast heaps of coal and
NrAnd on6 thu lauoo ran V,nn1acCac Tho
Governor took a steamer and departed.
When the Federal feet came in sight of the
city its seven miles of levee were packed
with human beings. Farragut sent a boat
ashore. end the fools gathered there began to
cheer for jeff. Davis and the South, and
Rroan Lincoln and his fleet. A few respecta-
ble persons conducted the officers to the City
Hall. There the mayor (Monroe(, assisted
by Mr.. Soule, refused to surrender the city,
and sent for a General Lowell, formerly a
street commissioner of New York city, who
said that he would not give up the town, but
meant to fight on shore. While these
men were at the mayors Office their
companions in the boats had been
assailed with that fury of epithets
which no man who has not experienced
it can understand. Farragut wrote to the
Mayor: 4 shall speedily and severely pun
ish the perpetrators of such outrages as were
witnessed yesterday of armed men firing
upon helpless women and children for Civ
Lh6 "a " tAACAA HASbooAS az
the old flag The Common Council formally
surrendered the city on the Goth of April.
Commodore Morris then hoisted the flag on
fhe Mint. Guns were trained on the flag
staff, and if any man had tried to haul it
down he would have been murdered from
the war-yessels."
'Was the flag pulled DOWN.
Eyes. -Four ruffians stole it, headed by
one w. B. Mumford. The New Orleans
Picayune the next day mentioned all their
~ n q 9 ac nroat hnrOpC II nnof NJ II ford htg
life, for Butler hanged him."
"What followed"
''Farragut got ready to lombard the city
for its want of civilized conduct after the
surrender. A company of marines landed
and restored the flag to the mint and GUS
'tom-house. Butler came up in the Missis-
sippi with fourteen hundred men and his
wife, put his vessel alongside the levee and
began to disembark his troops in the after
noon, and pressed the crowd back at the
point of the bayonet. Butler and his staff
marched on foot to the custom-house. The
mongrel crowd enjoyed themselves by shout
ing: Bull Run Big Bethel etc. He imme-
.diately suspended a newspaper for not allow
ing his p~roclamations to be set up in the Of
flee, and be soon put down all secession new
papers. He made his headquarters in the
st. Charles Hotel. He gave orders if the
mob made any more foolishness to open on
them with artillery. The mails were filled
with anonymous letters directed to Butler,
calling HIM 'Cock-eye.'"
What were the circumstances of the hang
ing of Mumford?''
"Mumford was q gambler, about forty-two
years old and rather good-looking. who en-
l3oyed for awhile his notoriety as the ~insulter
of the flag, till he was picked up on the
streets one day, sent before a military COM
mission and condemned to death, and on the
7th of June, 1862, he was hanged, and near
the same time seven men were condemned
to death for trying to get up a riot, These
men were finally sent to Ship Island. The
gallows was put up before the mint, and an
old preacher came in to Butler and said: