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office, and the use of his flag, must each and all be respected."

The rigor and decision which marked Gen. Butler's conduct in this instance characterized his administration from the moment of his arrival in New Orleans, and by a prompt and sometimes severe exercise of the rules of martial law, particularly in the matter of arrests and imprisonments, he kept the city in an orderly condition, although the inhabitants, distrusting his ability to maintain his authority for any considerable period, at first manifested no enthusiasm at the restoration of the national supremacy, and carefully abstained from committing themselves in favor of the Union. A notable exception was found in the conduct of a portion of the female population, who availed themselves of the license usually permitted to their sex, to offer gross insults and indignities to the national soldiers while in the orderly discharge of their duties. Apprehending that, if this conduct should be unrebuked, the soldiers might be induced to retaliate, or brought into such contempt as to provoke open assaults from the disaffected portions of the populace, Gen. Butler issued on May 15 the following order, known as General Order No. 28:

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

By command of Major-General BUTLER.

Its publication excited violent opposition from disloyal citizens, and the mayor of the city, John T. Monroe, made it the subject of an angry communication to the municipal government, and of a letter to Gen. Butler, placing an exceedingly offensive construction upon the order. The latter immediately directed him to be deprived of his official functions, and committed to Fort Jackson until further orders. At a subsequent interview with the commanderin-chief at headquarters, the mayor was informed that a withdrawal of his letter, and an apology for the language which it contained, would alone relieve him from incarceration; whereupon he made the annexed apology and retraction, and was allowed to resume the functions of his office:

GEN. BUTLER: This communication, having been sent under a mistake of fact, and being improper in language, I desire to apologize for the same, and to

withdraw it. May 16, 1862.

JOHN T. MONROE, Mayor.

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HEADQUARTERS, Department of the Gulf. NEW ORLEANS, May 16, 1862. SIR: There can be, there has been, no room for misunderstanding of General Order No. 28.

No lady will take any notice of a strange gentleman, and d fortiori of a stranger, simply in such form as to attract attention. Common women do. Therefore, whatever woman, lady, or mistress, gentle or simple, who, by gesture, look, or word, insults, shows contempt for, thus attracting to herself the notice of my officers and soldiers, will be deemed to act as becomes her vocation as a common woman, was most fully explained to you at my office. and will be liable to be treated accordingly. This

I shall not, as I have not, abated a single word of that order; it was well considered; if obeyed, it will protect the true and modest women from all possible insult. The others will take care of themselves. note and your apology. Respectfully, You can publish your letter, if you publish this BENJ. F. BUTLER, Major-General Commanding. JOHN T. MONROE, Mayor of New Orleans. The agitation consequent upon the publication of Order No. 28 was not confined to New Orleans or its neighborhood, but throughout all the States, loyal and disloyal, the language of Gen. Butler was made the subject of comments varying with the feelings or circumstances of the writer. Gen. Beauregard read it at the head of his army, as an incitement to renewed efforts against the "Northern hordes;" the Confederate journals denounced it with all the resources of the language at their command; and even in the North many editors and public speakers expressed themselves strongly against the order, and called upon the President In the European journals unfriendly to the nato disavow it publicly and rebuke its author. tional cause, and in some also of opposite views, it was criticised with characteristic asperity. The order was nevertheless tolerated by the President, and, in spite of the obloquy sought to be associated with it, was, in the opinion of persons competent to judge, in no respect oppressive in its operation, but rather productive of substantial good by preventing an indulgence in wanton insults by any class of the popula tion.

On May 29, the further circulation of Confederate money, which had been permitted for a limited period, ceased, in accordance with an order from the commander-in-chief, and on June 1, the port of New Orleans was declared, by a proclamation of the President, again open to commerce. Charles L. Lathrop, a former resident of the city, was appointed collector, and steam communication was almost imme diately resumed with the Northern States.

This change was not effected without a resort to measures which were denounced as arbitrary and tyrannical. Arrests of suspected persons had constantly to be made, at the discretion of the commander-in-chief, including, among others, Pierre Soulé, who was sent North; the "thugs," gamblers, and other desperate characters who had long dominated in the city, were dispersed or intimidated into silence; the newspapers were on one occasion temporarily suppressed for advocating the burn

ing of cotton and produce; and the bakers and other venders of food who had taken advantage of the scarcity of provisions to charge exorbitant prices, were compelled to conform to the tariff fixed by the city ordinances. For the further protection of the citizens, stringent orders were issued on May 27 and June 5, prohibiting officers and soldiers from taking private property or forcibly entering and searching private dwellings without written authority from the proper officers.

On June 7 took place the first military execution since the occupation of the city, the sufferer being one William B. Mumford, who was arrested for hauling down, on the morning of April 26, an American flag hoisted on the Mint by a boat's crew from Flag-Officer Farragut's fleet, and subsequently assisting in tearing it into shreds, and otherwise insulting it in the presence of a large and riotous crowd of citizens. The act, if unnoticed, was deemed to offer so pernicious a precedent for future offences, that Mumford was directed to be tried before a military commission, by whom he was convicted and sentenced to be hung. The sentence was approved by Gen. Butler, and carried into effect in the presence of an immense throng of citizens, who made no demonstrations and dispersed quietly to their homes. A universal cry of indignation at what was denounced as an act of murder went up from the seceded States, the hoisting of the flag, pending the formal surrender of the city, being deemed an unauthorized and unjustifiable proceeding on the part of the United States authorities, and one against which the mayor had protested in a written communication to Flag-Officer Farragut. On the other hand, it was claimed that the flag had been hoisted on a public building of the United States, and that the tearing of it down was an overt act of treason, done for the purpose of exating other evil-minded persons to further resistance to the laws and arms of the United States.

To the deep feeling of revenge which this execution aroused was due the vindictive retaliatory order subsequently issued by Jefferson Davis, and the rewards for the assassination of Gen. Butler, which have from time to time appeared in the Southern papers. The clemency of Gen. Butler had, however, a few days previous, been successfully invoked in favor of six Confederate soldiers paroled at Fort Jackson, and subsequently sentenced by a court-martial to be shot for being engaged in a conspiracy to raise a company to serve in Gen. Beauregard's army; and on another occasion he manifested his desire to administer justice impartially, by causing sentence of death against two soldiers of the garrison, convicted of robbery by a courtmartial, to be carried into effect. These were the only military executions which have taken place in New Orleans during its occupation by the national forces.

The difficulties with which Gen. Butler had become involved at the very outset of his administration, with the foreign consuls in New

Orleans, foreshadowed a long series of com plications embodying several grave questions of international comity. The news of the proceeding in the case of the consul of the Netherlands made some stir in the Northern States, and the subject having been brought to the notice of Mr. Seward by the British minister in the latter part of May, orders were issued from the War Department directing General Butler to refrain from practising any severities or strictness of doubtful right toward consuls or the subjects of any foreign power.

Business meanwhile began to assume some activity; a degree of order previously unknown in the city was maintained, and, owing to the stringent quarantine regulations enforced by the commander-in-chief, the sanitary condition of all classes of the inhabitants was unusually good. On June 14, the first of a series of Union meetings was held, at which several of the old residents were present and made speeches, and the papers of the 17th announced a gratifying increase of Union sentiment among the population at large.

During the summer no material change in the condition of things was experienced, the attention of Gen. Butler being directed toward the gradual weakening of the latent disunion power which still existed to a considerable extent among the wealthy classes. By an order issued July 25th, all negroes leaving New Orleans by direction of their masters, and who joined the national forces, were declared free; and early in the succeeding month a tax of $312,716 for the relief of the poor was levied on disloyal corporations and firms, being 25 per cent. of their contributions in aid of the Southern Confederacy. Confiscations of the property of prominent secessionists, as Gen. Twiggs and John Slidell, were also ordered. Subsequent to August 11, all the inhabitants of New Orleans were disarmed by order of the military commandant of the city, a proceeding which elicited a remonstrance from the French consul in behalf of French subjects. In reply, Gen. Butler stated that he "could see no just cause for complaint against the order," and promised the protection of the United States troops against any attempts at violence upon disarmed persons, no matter by whom attempted. To the Spanish consul, who protested against the stringency of the quarantine laws, he replied that his object in enforcing these laws in their strictness was "to save the inhabitants of New Orleans, as well Spanish as others, from the epidemic of yellow fever." In the latter part of August the initiatory step in the formation of a negro soldiery was taken by reorganizing the "Native Guards," a colored corps of the Louisiana State militia, raised under the certificate issued by the former governor of the State, and placing them in the service of the United States. Other organizations of a similar kind followed, and by the close of the year this branch of the service was established on a permanent footing.

On September 24, Gen. Lewis G. Arnold

assumed command of all the national troops at New Orleans and Algiers, and on the same day Gen. Butler created a panic among the secession sympathisers, by ordering all Americans, male and female, in his department, to renew their allegiance to the United States Government, under pain of fine and imprisonment at hard labor, and at the same time to submit a return of the amount of their real and personal property. The native population consequently flocked en masse to register their allegiance, and within a comparatively short time upward of 60,000 persons had complied with the order. Soon afterwards an order was issued prohibiting all persons in New Orleans holding moneys or other property in trust for persons in or sympathizing with the Confederate service; or from paying over the same without an order from the military headquarters, under penalty of having to refund a similar amount to the United States; and on October 22 the relief commission, whose labors had been regularly prosecuted since the previous May, was directed to supply no family where there was an able-bodied male member over 18 and under 45 years of age, who was either not employed, or had not enlisted in the United States army.

The month of November was distinguished by a further series of orders. The most important of these was one, framed in accordance with the provisions of the confiscation act of July, 1862, declaring sequestered all the property in the district called La Fourche, on the west side of the Mississippi, and all in that part of the State lying east of the Mississippi, except the parishes of Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines. Within these portions of the State sales or transfers of property were prohibited, and a commission was appointed to take possession of the districts in question, under whose direction the sugar plantations were worked in the absence of their owners, and the property of disloyal persons inventoried and sold for the benefit of the Government. From these sales, which continued until the middle of December, considerable sums were realized. Another order suppressed distilleries and other manufactories of intoxicating liquors; another announced that any officer found drinking intoxicating liquors in, any public drinking place, would be recommended to the President for dismissal from the service; and a third prohibited the arrest of any slave unless known to be owned by a Union citizen, or the imprisonment of a slave unless his expenses should be prepaid, the slave to be released when the money was exhausted. Gen. Butler also ordered a list of slaves confined in the police jail in the month of November to be published, and all whose jail fees were not paid within ten days to be discharged, adding: "This is the course taken in all countries with debtors confined by creditors, and slaves have not such commercial value in New Orleans as to justify their being held and fed by the city, relying upon any supposed lien upon the slave."

A prominent feature in the history of this month was a Union meeting, held on the 15th, which was terminated by a grand torchlight procession through the principal streets.

On December 3, in compliance with an order from Gen. Shepley, the military governor of Louisiana, an election for members of Congress was held, at which Benjamin F. Flanders and Michael Hahn were chosen to represent the first and second districts of the State, the elective franchise being accorded to all citizens who had taken the oath of allegiance.

The next event of importance was the arrival, on the evening of December 14, of Gen. Banks, who had been appointed to supersede Gen. Butler in command of the Department of the Gulf. The news excited surprise among all classes, and not a few of those opposed to the restoration of the national supremacy were sorry to part with an officer who, if obnoxious from his zeal in the discharge of his duties, had brought unexampled order and security to the city. A meeting of the two generals took place on the 15th, at which Gen. Butler tendered a cordial welcome to his successor, assuring him that the troops would render a cheerful obedience to his orders; and, on the 16th, Gen. Banks issued a general order assuming command of the Department of the Gulf and of the State of Texas. Another order required all military and civil officers in the department to report to him, and a third suspended all public sales of property on account of the United States until further orders.

On assuming command, Gen. Banks issued the following proclamation:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF,
NEW ORLEANS, Dec 16, 1862.

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In obedience to orders from the President of the

United States, I assume command of the Department the State of Texas. of the Gulf, to which is added, by his special order,

The duty with which I am charged requires me to assist in the restoration of the Government of the United States. It is my desire to secure to the people of every class all the privileges of possession and enjoyment consistent with public safety, or which it is possible for a beneficent and just government to confer. In execution of the high trust with which I am charged, I rely upon the cooperation and counsel of all loyal and well-disposed people, and upon the suits of peace, as well as upon the support of the namanifest interest of those dependent upon the purval and land forces.

My instructions require me to treat as enemies those who are enemies, but I shall gladly treat as friends those who are friends. No restrictions will be placed upon the freedom of individuals which is not imperatively demanded by considerations of public safety; but, while their claims will be liberally considered, it is due also to them to state that all the

rights of the Government will be unflinchingly maintained. Respectful consideration and prompt reparation will be accorded to all persons who are wronged in body or estate by those under my command.

The Government does not profit by the prolongation of the civil contest, or private or public sufferings which attend it. Its fruits are not equally distribboth on sea and on land. In the North the war is an uted. In disloyal States desolation has its empire, abiding sorrow, but not yet a calamity. Its cities and towns are increasing in population, wealth, and power,

Refugees from the South alone compensate in great part for the terrible decimations of battle.

The people of this department who are disposed to stake their fortunes and lives upon resistance to the Government may wisely reflect upon the immutable conditions which surround them. The valley of the Mississippi is the chosen seat of population, product, and power on this continent. In a few years twenty five millions of people, unsurpassed in material resources and capacity for war, will swarm upon its fertile rivers. Those who assume to set conditions upon their exodus to the Gulf count upon power not given to man. The country washed by the waters of the Ohio, Missouri, and Mississippi, can never be permanently severed. If one generation basely barters away its rights, immortal honors will rest upon another that reclaims them.

Let it never be said either, that the East and the West may be separated. Thirty days' distance from the markets of Europe may satisfy the wants of Louisiana and Arkansas, but it will not answer the demands of Illinois and Ohio. The valley of the Mississippi will have its deltas upon the Atlantic. The physical force of the West will debouch upon its shores with power as resistless as the torrents of its giant river. This country cannot be permanently divided. Ceaseless wars may drain its blood and treasure; domestic tyrants or foreign foes may grasp the sceptre of its power; but its destiny will remain unchanged. It will still be united. God has ordained it. What avails, then, the destruction of the best Government ever devised by man, and the self-adjusting, self-correcting Constitution of the United States?

People of the Southwest, why not accept the conditions imposed by the imperious necessities of geographical configuration and commercial supremacy, and reestablish your ancient prosperity and renown? Why not become founders of States, which, as entrepots and depots of your own central and upper valleys, may stand in affluence of their resources with

out a superior, and in the privileges of the people without a peer among the nations of the earth? N. P. BANKS, Maj.-Gen. Com'g,

The commencement of Gen. Banks's administration was marked by much leniency; but a portion of the people abused his clemency by various demonstrations, which brought out the following significant warning:

HEADQUARTERS DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF. NEW ORLEANS, Dec. 21, 1862. Information has been received at these headquarters that publications, injurious to the character of soldiers of the United States, are circulated in the streets, and that anonymous and threatening letters are sent to officers connected with the public service. Such practices are indecent, offensive, and criminal, and must be suppressed. The troops of this department are instructed to observe a respectful deportment to all persons, and the same deference will be exacted from all persons in their favor. Any attempt on the part of any person whatever by offensive personal conduct to excite passion, or which tends to personal altercation or controversy and the disturbance of the public peace, will be punished with the sharpest severity known to the military laws. The Commanding General requests that any violation of this order may be reported to these headquarters or to the Provost Marshal General. By command of

Maj.-Gen. BANKS.

That this did not immediately produce the effect intended was shown by the riotous conduct of several citizens, who, on Christmas Day, cheered in the public streets for President Davis, and used threatening language toward the military authorities. Prompt measures were taken to prevent the repetition of such acts.

CHAPTER XVII.

Position of the forces near Washington-Movements of Gen. Lander-Fortifications at Manassas-Plans of Gen. McClellan -Evacuation of Manassas-Commanders appointed by the President-Advance of the Army of the Potomac by waterDelay of Gen. McDowell-Safety of Washington-New Departments created-Advance of the Army of the Potomac on Yorktown-Its Siege-Evacuation-Pursuit by the Army of the Potomac-Evacuation of Williamsburg-Nava) Battle and destruction of the Iron-clad Merrimac-Capture of Norfolk-Attack on Drury's Bluff—Advance of the Army of the Potomac up the Peninsula-Position on the Chickahominy-Withdrawal of Gen. McDowell.

THE position and number of the Federal troops in Virginia at the beginning of the year have already been stated. The distinct bodies of men were those under Gen. Wool at Fortress Monroe and Newport News; those under Gen. Hooker south of Washington; those under Gen. McClellan southwest of Washington; those under Gens. Keyes and Casey in and around Washington; those under Gen. Stone at and near Poolesville, and those under Gen. Banks near Darnestown with detachments on the Potomac to Williamsport. Cumberland was the headquarters of Gen. Kelly, and Grafton in western Virginia, on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the headquarters of Gen. Rosecrans, while Gen. Cox was up the Kanawha valley.

On the 5th of January Gen. Lander arrived at Hancock, on his way to Cumberland to relieve Gen. Kelly, who was sick. He found the enemy, under Gen. Jackson, on the other side of the Potomac, in considerable strength. It had been

designed for two months that General Jackson should move northwest toward Romney; but he was delayed by the impression of the Confederate Government that the Federal army would make a general advance, and risk a battle during the winter. On the 3d or 4th of January he left Winchester and moved northward toward Hancock, a distance of forty miles, and attacked four companies of Federal troops stationed at Bath, driving them to Hancock, where, having been reënforced by Gen. Lander, they made a stand. Here Gen. Jackson made a feint attack by throwing some shells across the Potomac, which did only slight damage. He then moved westward with the intention of coming into Romney, on the Union left, by way of Springfield, and thus cut off the supplies from Cumberland and the railroad. The relative positions. of Winchester, Hancock, and Romney are at the points of an equilateral_triangle: Hancock north of Winchester, and Romney northwest.

The day before Gen. Jackson retired from before Hancock, Gen. Kelly, who was in Cumberland, sent an order to Col. Dunning, the commandant at Romney, to make an attack on the enemy's force stationed at Blue's Gap, a strong position, sixteen miles from Romney, on the road to Winchester. On the night of the 6th an expedition, consisting of the 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th Ohio, 14th Indiana, and 1st Virginia, with two companies of cavalry and a battery, was sent to Blue's Gap, and made an attack upon the enemy, who, being in small force, were completely driven out. At this time Gen. Loring, with a considerable Confederate force, was within six miles of the gap, expecting the Federal column to push on and attack him. Meantime, as soon as Gen. Jackson left Hancock, Gen. Lander, anticipating his intentions, proceeded to Cumberland to Gen. Kelly, and assumed the chief command, and thence to Romney, where he arrived on the night of the Tuesday on which the expedition returned from Blue's Gap. Everything was put in readiness for a struggle. On Friday following it was report ed that Gen. Jackson, in command of his right wing of ten thousand men, was within twelve miles east of Springfield, resting his men, and waiting for his other forces to get into position. His centre under Gen. Loring, about eight thousand strong, was at Blue's Gap, and his left wing of three thousand had moved up from toward Moorefield, and taken position on the New Creek road, some six miles in the rear of Romney. Thus, excepting at one point, Romney was completely surrounded by Gen. Jackson. If Gen. Lander could march north eight miles, to the Springfield crossing of the South Branch of the Potomac, before Gen. Jackson could march west twelve to Springfield, then Gen. Lander could get beyond him, or fight him with ten thousand men, at a less disadvantage than in Romney, where Gen. Jackson would concentrate twenty thousand. The entire force of Gen. Lander was about four thousand five hundred men. On Friday night everything was ready for the march. The sick, the hospital, and commissary stores were sent forward under a strong guard, and at midnight the rear guard of Gen. Lander withdrew from the town. It had rained during the day, and the rate of advance over the bad roads was a mile and a quarter to the hour. At five o'clock the next morning Gen. Lander reached Springfield. The men were so tired and exhausted that, after making fires of the fences, they lay down in files on the cold, wet ground and slept. In two hours they were again on the march. But Gen. Jackson, instead of following, went to Romney, and thence retired to Winchester, leaving the former place occupied by Gen. Loring. He also evacuated it after a few days, partly in consequence of Gen. Lander having gathered his forces, and prepared for a march upon it. Subsequently Moorefield was captured, and Bloomery Gap, by Gen. Lander. On the 11th of February Gen. Lander telegraphed to Gen.

McClellan, the commander-in-chief, as follows: "The railroad was opened to-day to Hancock; also the telegraph. Papers taken, and my own reconnoissance to the south, prove the country clear, and Jackson and Loring in Winchester. The enemy have been driven out of this department."

The failure of Gen. Lander's health compelled him soon after to resign his command.

The time was now approaching when some movement should begin among the vast forces encamped in northeastern Virginia. With the Confederate Government, which still adhered to the defensive policy, the question was, whether it should maintain its advanced position before Washington, or fall back on Richmond? Its position was so well fortified that it could resist any attack in front, but would be in danger if either of its flanks were turned. Winchester, in the Shenandoah Valley, was the extreme point on the northwest occupied by the Confederate army, and Aquia Creek and Matthias Point on the southeast. This extent of line was too great to be maintained before the vast Federal forces organized in front. The flanks might thus be turned by the way of Leesburg on the north, or the Potomac on the south, and serious disaster would ensue. At the same time, the farther Gen. McClellan was drawn from his position before being encountered, so much the easier would his army be overcome, and at a greater cost to the North. These and similar considerations determined the Confederate Government to evacuate the position held by its army at Manassas. This measure was, however, not executed until March.

On the 30th of January, Gen. Beauregard, having been ordered to command in Kentucky and Tennessee, issued the following address to the soldiers at Manassas:

HEADQUARTERS FIRST CORPS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, Near CENTREVILLE, January 80, 1862. Soldiers of the First Corps Army of the Potomac: My duty calls me away, and to a temporary separation from you. I hope, however, to be with you again, to share your labors and your perils, and in defence of our homes and our rights, to lead you to new battles, to be crowned with signal victories.

You are now undergoing the severest trial of a soldier's life; the one by which his discipline and capacity for endurance are thoroughly tested. My faith in your patriotism, your devotion and determination, and in your high soldierly qualities, is so great that I shall rest assured you will pass through the ordeal resolutely, triumphantly. Still, I cannot quit you without deep emotion, without even deep anxiety, in the moment of our country's trials and dangers. Above all, I am fronting the haughty array and muster of Northern anxious that my brave countrymen, here in arms, mercenaries, should thoroughly appreciate the exigency, and hence comprehend that this is no time for the army of the Potomac-the men of Manassas-to stack ards they have made glorious by their manhood. All their arms and quit, even for a brief period, the standmust understand this, and feel the magnitude of the conflict impending, the universal personal sacrifices this war has entailed, and our duty to meet them as promptly and unblenchingly as you have met the onemy in line of battle.

To the army of the Shenandoah I desire to return my thanks for their endurance in the memorable march to

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