Benjamin Franklin Butler

Benjamin Franklin Butler PDF Author: Elizabeth D. Leonard
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 146966805X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Benjamin Franklin Butler was one of the most important and controversial military and political leaders of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Remembered most often for his uncompromising administration of the Federal occupation of New Orleans during the war, Butler reemerges in this lively narrative as a man whose journey took him from childhood destitution to wealth and profound influence in state and national halls of power. Prize-winning biographer Elizabeth D. Leonard chronicles Butler’s successful career in the law defending the rights of the Lowell Mill girls and other workers, his achievements as one of Abraham Lincoln’s premier civilian generals, and his role in developing wartime policy in support of slavery’s fugitives as the nation advanced toward emancipation. Leonard also highlights Butler’s personal and political evolution, revealing how his limited understanding of racism and the horrors of slavery transformed over time, leading him into a postwar role as one of the nation’s foremost advocates for Black freedom and civil rights, and one of its notable opponents of white supremacy and neo-Confederate resurgence. Butler himself claimed he was “always with the underdog in the fight.” Leonard’s nuanced portrait will help readers assess such claims, peeling away generations of previous assumptions and characterizations to provide a definitive life of a consequential man.

Benjamin Franklin Butler

Benjamin Franklin Butler PDF Author: Elizabeth D. Leonard
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 146966805X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
Benjamin Franklin Butler was one of the most important and controversial military and political leaders of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Remembered most often for his uncompromising administration of the Federal occupation of New Orleans during the war, Butler reemerges in this lively narrative as a man whose journey took him from childhood destitution to wealth and profound influence in state and national halls of power. Prize-winning biographer Elizabeth D. Leonard chronicles Butler’s successful career in the law defending the rights of the Lowell Mill girls and other workers, his achievements as one of Abraham Lincoln’s premier civilian generals, and his role in developing wartime policy in support of slavery’s fugitives as the nation advanced toward emancipation. Leonard also highlights Butler’s personal and political evolution, revealing how his limited understanding of racism and the horrors of slavery transformed over time, leading him into a postwar role as one of the nation’s foremost advocates for Black freedom and civil rights, and one of its notable opponents of white supremacy and neo-Confederate resurgence. Butler himself claimed he was “always with the underdog in the fight.” Leonard’s nuanced portrait will help readers assess such claims, peeling away generations of previous assumptions and characterizations to provide a definitive life of a consequential man.

Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benj. F. Butler

Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences of Major-General Benj. F. Butler PDF Author: Benjamin Franklin Butler
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Generals
Languages : en
Pages : 1252

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Book Description


Benjamin Franklin Butler

Benjamin Franklin Butler PDF Author: Dick Nolan
Publisher: Presidio Press
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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Book Description
This book is an account of Civl War general Benjamin Franklin Butler who became a despised figure in the South during the Union occupation of New Orleans coming to be known as the 'Beast.'

“Beast” Butler

“Beast” Butler PDF Author: Robert Werlich
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
ISBN: 1787204596
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
First published in 1962, this is a biography of Benjamin Franklin Butler, (1818-1893), aka “Beast” Butler, an American lawyer, politician, soldier and businessman from Massachusetts, who became best known as a political major general of the Union Army during the American Civil War, and for his leadership role in the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson. He was a colorful and often controversial figure on the national stage and in the Massachusetts political scene, where he served one term as Governor. “In the history of the United States, there has never been anyone quite like Benjamin Franklin Butler. Without a doubt one of the most incompetent Generals and corrupt politicians this nation has ever seen, Butler was accused during the Civil War, of murder, trading with the enemy, theft, maltreatment of women, blackmail, and arson. He was the only Union General that the Confederacy ordered hanged on the spot if captured. With his malefactions public knowledge, he became after the War, successively five times Republican United States Congressman, Democratic Governor of Massachusetts, and Greenback-Peoples candidate for the Presidency. He achieved these high positions by sheer bluff, taking care of his supporters, and by an oratorical ability to twist any occurrence, no matter how incredible, stupid, or shady into a vindication of himself. He was a demagogue’s demagogue.”—Robert Werlich, Foreword

Seeking Freedom

Seeking Freedom PDF Author: Selene Castrovilla
Publisher: Astra Publishing House
ISBN: 1635925827
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 42

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Book Description
In this dramatic Civil War story, a courageous enslaved fugitive teams with a cunning Union general to save a Union fort from the Confederates–and triggers the end of slavery in the United States. This is the first children's nonfiction book about a Black unsung hero who remains relevant today and to the Black Lives Matter movement. On the night Virginia secedes from the Union, three enslaved men approach Fortress Monroe. Knowing that Virginia's secession meant they would be separated from their families and sent farther south to work for the Confederacy, the men decided to plead for sanctuary. And they were in luck. The fort's commander, Benjamin Butler, retained them--and many more that followed--by calling them "contraband of war." Butler depended on the contrabands to provide information about the Confederates. He found the perfect partner in George Scott, one of the contrabands, whose heroism saved the fort from enemy hands. And, it was the plight of the contrabands that convinced President Lincoln that slavery MUST be abolished and inspired him to write his Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in the rebellious states.

Army Generals and Reconstruction

Army Generals and Reconstruction PDF Author: Joseph G. Dawson III
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807119600
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
The U.S. Army faced extraordinary problems while policing the post–Civil War South, and the task may have been the most difficult in Louisiana, where Reconstruction lasted longer than in any other of the former Confederate states. Beginning with General Benjamin Franklin Butler, who boasted that “in six months New Orleans should be a Union city or—a home of the alligators,” the Union generals who commanded Louisiana would meet with varying degrees of success in their attempts to enforce the constantly evolving Reconstruction policies of three administrations on a people who openly despised their conquerors. Covering the period from the fall of New Orleans to Federal forces through the collapse of Stephen Packard’s Republican government in 1877, Army Generals and Reconstruction is a history and a detailed analysis of the army’s responsibilities, accomplishments, and failures in Reconstruction Louisiana. The first book to fully examine and assess the army’s direct influence on Louisiana politics during Reconstruction, Joseph G. Dawson’s study shows how the decisions and attitudes of the army commanders were crucial to both the Republican and Democratic parties and how neither side could act confidently without knowing first how the generals would respond to their actions. Dawson examines the army commanders’ efforts to ensure that blacks and Republicans could exercise their civil and political rights. He reveals the difficulties commanders often faced in protecting Republicans from Democratic violence and economic retribution—particularly during the 1870s when the conservative Democrats mounted an intensive and violent campaign to regain control of the state government. Dawson also looks at the influence of General Philip Sheridan on Louisiana Reconstruction politics. During his command in the state, Sheridan was able to protect and strengthen the Republican party, but his policies incurred the displeasure of President Andrew Johnson, who ordered him out of Louisiana to a new assignment on the Great Plains. Sheridan, however, retained his interest in Louisiana politics and his support of Radical Reconstruction, and was later twice sent into the state on special missions by President U.S. Grant. Still, despite the efforts of Sheridan and other pro-Republican officers, the Democrats worked their way back into power. Based on a close examination of archival sources—including the personal papers of the officers who commanded the occupation forces—this study by Joseph G. Dawson reveals the fully complexity of the army’s involvement in Louisiana politics throughout Reconstruction.

Lincoln's Forgotten Ally

Lincoln's Forgotten Ally PDF Author: Leonard, Elizabeth
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807835005
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
This manuscript is the first biography of Joseph Holt, the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General during the Civil War. Leonard argues that Holt has been portrayed as more or less a caricature of himself, flatly represented as the brutal prosecutor of Lincoln's assassins and the judge who allowed Mary Surratt to be hanged despite knowing her sentence had been reduced. Leonard contends that the southern view of Holt became the predominant way we see him, in large part because the memory perpetrated by the Lost Cause defined Holt as ruthless toward Southerners and the South. But Leonard argues that there is much more to Holt than what sympathizers with the Lost Cause came to think of him, and she tells his story here, from his early life in Kentucky to his wartime life as a member of Lincoln's administration to his postwar life as the prosecutor of Lincoln's assassins. Perhaps most important, Leonard will look at the erasure of Holt from American memory and investigate how such a significant figure has come to be so widely misunderstood.

The Butler's Child

The Butler's Child PDF Author: Lewis M. Steel
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1466884983
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
The Butler's Child is the personal story of a Warner Brothers family grandson who spent more than fifty years as a fighting, no holds barred civil rights lawyer. Lewis M. Steel explores why he, a privileged white man, devoted his life to seeking racial progress in often uncomprehending or hostile courts. In fact, after writing a feature for The New York Times Magazine entitled "Nine Men in Black Who Think White," Lewis was fired from the NAACP and the entire legal staff resigned in support of him. Lewis speaks about his family butler, an African American man named William Rutherford, who helped raise Lewis, and their deep but ultimately troubled relationship, as well as how Robert L. Carter, the NAACP's extraordinary general counsel, became Lewis' mentor, father figure and lifelong close friend. Lewis exposes the conflicts which arose from living and working in two very different worlds - that of the Warner Brothers family and that of a civil rights lawyer. He also explores his more than fifty year marriage that joined two very different Jewish and Irish American families. Lewis' work with the NAACP and in private practice created legal precedents still relevant today. The Butler's Child is also an insider's look into some of the most important civil rights cases from the turbulent 1960's to the present day by a man still working to advance the civil rights which should be available to all.

The Butler Ancestry of Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler in America

The Butler Ancestry of Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler in America PDF Author: Ames Blanche Butler
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781018954462
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Franklin of Philadelphia

Franklin of Philadelphia PDF Author: Esmond Wright
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674318106
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
This first comprehensive biography in 50 years has taken advantage of Yale's massive edition-in-progress of Franklin's papers and of the many specialized studies inspired by the correspondence. Designed for the general reader, it is also a work for scholars, and includes an analysis of other interpretations of Franklin's career and personality.