May 16, 1862---An ugly mug

MAY 16, 1862:            

General Benjamin Franklin Butler U.S.A., Military Governor of New Orleans, becomes known, now and forevermore, as “Beast” Butler. Despite Butler’s surprisingly enlightened management of the city, in which he has in just two weeks of command improved sanitation, repaired roads, and made needed repairs on the critical levees as well as encouraging the resumption of business after the lifting of the blockade, Butler is desperately short on tact. As he showed during his rule of Baltimore (where he threatened to bombard the city if there were even the slightest pro-Confederate sentiments expressed), Butler clearly hates Rebels. And they hate him. Many of the city’s women, whose loved ones are out in the field fighting, have shown their disdain for the occupiers by gathering up their skirts when soldiers come near, fleeing rooms they enter, crossing the street so as to not walk on the same sidewalk, and casting hateful glances.  Some have gone so far as to make hateful remarks, sing “The Bonnie Blue Flag” and other Confederate songs, and to spit on their uniforms while instructing their children to follow suit.  One woman famously emptied her chamber pot onto Captain David C. Farragut’s head after he accepted the surrender of the city by the mayor. Butler responded to these minor provocations with a harsh “Woman’s Order”:

As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans in return for the most scrupulous non-interference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall by word, gesture, or movement insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation.

This severe offense to Southern Womanhood has enraged the populace and made them far less tractable than they would have been. He is “Beast” to some, while others call him “Spoons,” claiming that he steals spoons from every home in which he makes his headquarters.  An enterprising manufacturer hoping to profit from the dilemma has created a chamber pot with Butler’s image inside so that anyone relieving him or herself can take aim at the General.