, 1888-06-14

been published, to my knowledge 1
suppress the present name Of the
woman, as IL is that of renowned
officer of the army who was the hero
of u remarkable engineering feat of
the late war that saved the union
cause fleet Of gunboats. The woman
was his wife. She was from LeXing-
ton, KY, where she was known as
Minnie White. At II very early age
she drifted into wild life in New Or
leans. She had II husband, who went
INTO the confederate service, but that
did not deter her from marrying Gen.
B., of the union forces. After
the occupation of New Orleans
by Butler, Gen. B. was for u
long time confronted by the con-
federates under her first husband. Sic
frequently passed from one camp to
another, and she so managed that
large amount of cotton was carried to
New Orleans for her account. Gen.
Butler seized it. Her husband in the
union army suddenly and mysterious
ly died. She was arrested, charged
with his taking-ofi'. A court martial.
headed by Gen. James b. Steedman,
of Ohio, tried her, but could not prove
her guilty, and she was released. But
Butler held on to the cotton. She
went to Washington and appealed to
President Johnson to release her con.
traband goods, and did not appeal in
vain. But there arose a scandal, and
Johnson had to fight little shy of her
for time. She had sort of connec-
ton with the famous French arms
scandal" of Johnson's administration,
and was supposed to be the woman
who negotiated the sale of arms to the
French government. She came to
New York, aud for a time lived with
Jim Fisk, Jr., before he met either
Mansfield, Monteland or the Morse
women.
Now for the inner history.
On the day of the shooting of Fisk,
Edward s. Stokes was passing the
Grand Central hotel when Mrs. Gen.
B. beckoned to him from the parlor
window, and he crossed the street and
joined her in the public parlor. He
knew nothing of the presence of
friends of Fisk in the hotel, nor that
he visited the place. After some con-
versation Mrs. B. left by the en-
trance for ladies, Stokes agreeing to
remain until she was fairly out of the
way. AS she left the hotel door
Fisk's carriage drove up. She stepped
into II drug store frightened at the
prospect of the two men meeting. A
moment later Fisk had entered. She
ran to the door to prevent meeting.
Too late Stokes at the head of the
stairs had fired. Fisk fell on the
steps. Mrs. b picked up the pistol
which fell from Fisk's hand and fled.
Fisk's pistol never could be found,
but, pending Stokes trial, the
woman told him what she had done
and offered to produce the weapon
and testify to the facts for Sl0,0 900 in
cash. The friend who tells me this
was friend of Stokes and Of one of
his lawyers and at their request he in
vestigated the character of the woman.
1t was so bad that the defense did not
care to call her, even if they could
have brought themselves to the point
of paying for the woman's testimony.
Gen. Steedman knew her career in
New Orleans and Washington. Her
cross-examination on trial would have
brought out the facts regarding john
son, with whom Steedman was friend
ly, and he gave the woman the worst
character he could. Thus it happened
that the woman and the pistol in the
Fisk case were never produced.
And these are facts.-Philadelphi
Times.