Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1893-01-19
From the Kansas City Times r,
BTTTI,BR'S VARIED CARBHt'
A Brief Account Of Some OF tn'
Events Of His Life.

A Brief Account Of Some OF tne
Events of His Life
The name of Benjamin Franklin
Butler is not beloved in the SCUM
The terrible sternness with which ne
ruled New Orleans when he was mil
itary governor of that city in lSOz
has never been forgotten. Possibly
this deep animosity was really pleas
inc to Ben Butler, for if ever there
was a fighter, man delightlng In
contest, it was he. Buffers life was
n battle from birth to death.
This man, so strange a figure in
America, was born at Deerlield, N
H.. November 5, 1878 His father
John, Butler, n captain of dragons,
served under Jackson in the defense
of New Orleans, which city, years
later, the son was to conquer and to
rule with so despotic hand.
John Butler died in 1919 in the
West Indies, whittier he had gone
with a trading schooner He left his
widow in poverty with two children
to support. She, with New England
thrift, provided well for them and
gave Benjamin, the younger, a good
education. In 1928 she removed to
Lowell, Mass, that the boy might
have better school opportunities. Ben
was sent to Waterville college, now
Colby university, where he gradu-
ated IN 1888. Then he went on a
four month voyage to Labrador in a
fishing smack, and returning to Low
ell entered law office He was adj
mitted to the bar in 1910 and his
pugnacity and grit pushed him into a
good practice. He soon opened an
Office in Boston, formed a partnership
there, and retaining his Lowell office,
soon was tho possessor of two dis
tinct practices. He was declared to
be the peer of any New England law
yer in his adroitness in making de-
vices to outwit and defeat an oppo-
nent. Butler dabbled In politics from
boyhood; before he was twenty he
was making stump speeches about
Boston He was a democrat. He
was elected to the Massachusetts, leg
islature in 1858, and to the state SEN
ate in 1859 He was at the demo-
cratic national convention at Charles
ton in 1860, and when that body split
Butler went with the wing which
nominated Breckinridge.
When affairs began to look troub-
lous early in 1861 Butler was active
in raising troops for the Massachus-
etts volunteers. He held a briga-
dier's commission in the state forces.
and in April Governor Andrews or
dered him to moye his brigade to
Washington. He set out on April II
with the Eighth Massachusetts, 900
men, and WAS placed in command of
the district about Annapolis. May Ii
he entered Baltimore with his regi
ment, marching through u bowling
mob. A few days later Butler was
put in command of tho department
of eastern Virginia, with headquar-
tiers at Fortress Monroe, being APP
pointed major general,
1t was at Fortress Monroe that
Butler first acquired fame by apply
ing the title ''coutrabands" to refugee
slaves. Escaped negroes were com
ing into his camp all the while and
their late masters were constantly
making application for their surren-
der. The officials at Washington
had not fixed the status of these ref
ugees, so Butler, after his own fash
ION, took the matter into his own
hands He declared that the escaped
negroes were ''contraband of war"
and that he would not give them up
to their former masters
And as ''contrabands" negroes were
known everywhere all through the
war.
Butler was relieved Of the COM
mand at Fortress Monroe in August,
1861, and later led an expedition
against the forts at Hatteras inlet.
which expedition was victorious. He
then returned to Massachusetts and
was authorized to raise brigade of
troops in the New England states.
He enlisted 5000 men. 1t was de-
cided to send him with these to co.
operate with the naval force operat.
ing against New Orleans.
How Farragut's feet of forty.seven