pearance of the man was extraordinary and revolting. He had small,
muddy, cruel eyes ; one of them was curtained by a drooping lid ; and
there was a smothered glower in them indicative of ill-contained and vio-
lent passion. The other of his features were almost covered up in enor-
mous chops, with little webs of red veins in them ; and the whole expres*
Bion of his face was that of a lecherous coarseness and a cunning ferocity.
Such was the tyrant of New Orleans. He inaugurated his rule in the
subdued city by the following order, directed against the women of New
Orleans, which at once made his name infamous in all the Christian and
civilized countries of the world, and obtained for him in the South the
popular and persistent title of the " Beast : "
" llEADaUAUTEES, Depaiitjient OP GuLP, New Ouleans, May 15.
" As officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults
from women calling tliemselves 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 sliall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman about town
plying her avocation. By command of Maj.-Gen. BUTLER.
" Geo. 0. Strong, A. A. G."
Tlie infamous " woman-order " was the prelude to a rule in New
Orleans that excited the horrour and disgust of the civilized world. The
not have held out for any great length of time for this reason, and I deemed it best to save their
garrisons (composed of veil-drilled artillerists) for the works at Vicksburg, where they have ever
since rendered such good service. But it was not intended to abandon them so soon, nor, indeed,
till I had transfeired all the public property from New Orleans."
17
258 THE LOST CAUSE.
newspapers which declined to publish an edict so disreputable were threat-
ened with suppression ; * and Major Monroe and some of the city author-
ities who ventured to protest against it, were arrested, shipped down to
Fort Jackson, and for many months kept in confinement there. Then
followed a series of acts of cruelty, despotism and indecency. Citizens
accused of contumacious disloyalty, were confined at hard labour, with
balls and chains attached to their limbs. Men, whose only offence was
selling medicines to sick Confederate soldiers, were arrested and impris-
oned. A physician who, as a joke, exhibited a skeleton in his window as
that of a Yankee soldier, was sentenced to be confined at Ship Island for
two years, at hard labour. A lady, the wife of a former member of Con-
gress of the United States, who haj)pened to laugh as the funeral train of a
Yankee officer passed her door, received this sentence : " It is, therefore,
ordered that she be not ' regarded and treated as a common w^oman,' of
whom no officer or soldier is bound to take notice, but as an uncommon,
bad, and dangerous woman, stirring up strife, and inciting to riot, and that,
therefore, she be confined at Ship Island, in the State of Mississippi, within
proper limits there, till further orders." The distinction of sex seems only to
* The following appeared in a Southern newspaper during the days of Butler's rule in New
Orleans :
" Considering the character of the infamous order issued, with reference to the ladies of New
Orleans, the following will be thought a well-designed act of retributive justice. Preparations were
making for a dress-parade, and a number of officers had congregated in front of the St. Charles,
Butler's headquarters. A handsome carriage was driven in front of the hotel, accompanied by ser-
vants m livery, with every sign of wealth and taste in the owner of the equipage. The occupant,
dressed in the latest fashion and sparkling with jewelry, drew from her pocket her gold card-case,
and taking therefrom her card, sent it up to Butler's rooms. Tiie next day himself and lady called
at the residence indicated on the card — a fine mansion in a fashionable part of the city — where a
couple of hours were agreeably spent in conversation, followed by the introduction of wine and cake,
wlien the highly-delighted visitors took their departure. Butler did not appreciate the fact that he
had been made the victim of a successful " sell," until he learned shortly afterwards that he had been
paying his respects to the proprietress of one of the most celebrated bagnios in the State, who is at
this time ' considered a woman of (he town, plying her vocation as such.' "
As a matter of justice — or as a specimen of ingenious quibbling, as the reader may decide — we
should not omit Gen. Butler's explanation and attempted justification of his " woman-order."' The
author of these pages, in the painful character of a prisoner of war, had, once, occasion to meet Gen.
Butler, and to have some conversation with him, in the course of which Gen. B. volunteered a long
defence of his rule in New Orleans. He declared that as to the " woman-order," when Lord Palmer-
ston denounced it in the British Parliament, he might, if he had turned to the Ordinances of London,
have found that it had been borrowed from that ancient and respectable authority. The " Ladies "
of New Orleans, he said, did not interfere with his troops ; it was the demi-monde that troubled him.
One of this class had spat in an officer's face. Another had placed herself vis-a-vis to an officer in
the street, exclaiming, " La, here is a Yankee ; don't he look like a monkey ! " It became necessary
to adopt an order that " would execute itself," and have these women treated as street-walkers. " How
do you treat a street-walker ? " said Gen. Butier ; " you dca't hug and kiss her in the street ! " The
General explained that he meant only that these women wae to be treated with those signs of con
tempt and contumely usually bestowed upon street-walkers, so as to make them ashamed of them-
selves ; and it was thus the order " executed itself."
RULE OF BUTLER IN NEW ORLEANS. 259
have been recognized by Butler as a cowardly opportunity for advantaga
In his office, in the St. Charles Hotel, the inscription was placed in plain
Biglit : " There is no difference hetween a he and a she adder in thei}
wm;»2." His officers were allowed to indulge their rapacity and lust at
will ; they seized houses of respectable citizens, and made them the shops
of infamous female characters ; they appropriated the contents of wine-
rooms ; they plundered the wardrobes of ladies and gentlemen ; they sent
away from the city the clothing of whole families ; they " confiscated "
pianos, libraries, and whatever articles of luxury and ornament pleased
their fancy, and sent them as presents and souvenirs to their friends at
home. It was the era of plunder and ill-gotten gains. Fines wxn-e col-
lected at pleasure. Kecusants were threatened with ball and chain. A
trade was opened in provisions for cotton, and Butler's own brother was
made banker and broker of the corrupt operations, buying confiscated
property, trading provisions and even military stores for cotton, and amass-
ing out of the distress of an almost starving people fortunes of princely
amount and villainous history. ]^o wonder that the principal of these
outrages lived in perpetual alarm for the safety of his life. It was said
that he wore secret armour. He certainly was never for a moment with-
out an armed guard. Sentinels walked in five paces of him ; and when he
sat in his office, several pistols lay beside him, and a chair allotted to the
visitor was chained to the wall while a pistol capped but unloaded was
placed, as if carelessly, within reach, as a cunning decoy to tlie supposed
assassin.*
A shocking incident of Butler's despotism in New Orleans was the
execution of William B. Mumford, a citizen of the Confederate States,
charged with the singular ci-ime of having taken the Federal flag from the
United States Mint, w^hich was done before the city had surrendered, and
was, in any circumstances, but an act of war. He was condemned to death
for an insult to the enemy's ensign. It was scarcely to be believed that
on such a charge a human life would be taken, deliberately and in cold
blood. Butler was inexorable. The wife and children of the condemned
man piteously plead for his life. Butler's answer was cruel and taunting.
A number of citizens joined in a petition for mercy. Butler answered that
* We are indebted to James Parton, a Northern biographer of Butler, for mention of this
ingenious device. Parton thus describes the arrangements of his hero's office, wliile transacthig
l)miaess :
" The office was a large room, furnished with little more than a long table and a few chairs. In
one comer, behind the table, sat, unobserved, a short-hand rejjorter, who, at a signal from the Gen-
eral, would take down the examination of an applicant or an informer. The General began businesfl
by placing his pistol upon the table, within easy reach. After the detection of two or three plots to
assassinate him, one of the aides caused a little shelf to be made under the table for the pistol, while
another pistol, urdoaded, lay upon the table, which any gentleman, disposed to attempt the game Oif
assassination, was at liberty to snatch."
260 THE LOST CAUSE.
some vicious men in New Orleans had sent him defiant letters about
Mnmford's fate ; that an issue had been raised, that it was " to be decided
whether he was to govern in New Orleans or not " — and he decided it bj
keeping the word he had first pronounced, and sending Mumford to the
gallows.
The condemned man was one of humble station in life, and was said to
have been of dissipated habits. But he was faultlessly brave. On the gallows
the suggestion was made to him that he might yet save his life by a Immil
iating and piteous confession. He replied to the ofiicer who thus tempted
him : " Go away." He turned to the crowd, and said, with a distinct and
steady voice : "• I consider that the manner of my death will be no disgrace
to my wife and children ; my country will honour them." More than a
thousand spectators stood around the gallows ; they could not believe that
the last act of the tragedy was really to be performed ; they looked on in
astonished and profound silence.
Before the era of Butler in New Orleans, the Confederates had had a
large and instructive experience of the ferocity of their enemies, and their
disregard of all the rules of war and customs of civilization. At Manassas
and Pensacola the Federals had repeatedly and deliberately fired upon
hospitals. In the naval battle in Hampton Eoads, they had hung out a
white flag, and then opened a perfidious fire upon our seamen. At New-
bern they had attempted to shell a town containing several thousand
women and children, before either demanding a surrender, or giving the
citizens notice of their intentions. They had broken faith on every occa-
sion of expediency ; they had disregarded flags of truces ; they had stolen
private property ; they had burned houses, and desecrated churches ; they
had stripped widows and orphans of death's legacies by a barbarous law
of confiscation ; they had overthrown municipalities and State Govern-
ments ; they had imprisoned citizens, without warrant and regardless of
age or sex ; and they had set at defiance the plainest laws of civilized
warfare.
Butler's government in New Orleans, and his " ingenious " war upon
the helplessness of men and virtue of women was another step in atrocity.
The Louisiana soldiers in Yirginia went into battle, shouting : " Eemem-
l)er Butler ! " It was declared that the display of Federal authority in the
conquered city of New Orleans was sufficient to make the soldiers of the
South devote anew whatever they had of life and labour and blood to the
cause of the safety and honour of their country. And yet it was but the
oj^ening chapter of cruelty and horrours, exaggerated at each step of the
Will-, until Humanity was to stand aghast at the black volume of misery
»nd ruin.
1
CHAPTEK XVI.
MORE THAU ONE-THIRD OF THE FEDERAL FORCES OPERATING AGAINST RICHMOND. ^m'cTT.KIt
LAN's OPINION OF HIS ARMY. — ITS NUMERICAL STRENGTH. — OFFICIAL STATEMENT OF CON*
FEDERATE FORCES IN NORTH VIRGINIA. — LINCOLN'S ORDER OF THE 22D FEBRUARY. —
m'cLELLAN's DISSENT. — WHEN JOHNSTON DETERMINED TO CHANGE HIS LINE ON THE POTO-
MAC. HIS PREPARATIONS FOR RETREAT. HOW IT WAS ACCOMPLISHED. — m'cLELLAn's
ADVANCE. — DISCOVERY OF JOHNSTON's EVACUATION OF MANASSAS AND CENTREVILLE. —
HE CROSSES THE RAPPAHANNOCK AND WAITS FOR THE ENEMY. — HE PENETRATES m'cLEL-
LAn's DESIGNS. — FEDERAL COUNCIL OF WAR AT FAIRFAX COURT-HOUSE. — SHIFTING OF
THE SCENES OF WAR IN VIRGINIA. THE BATTLE OF KERNSTOWN. HOW " STONEWALL "
JACKSON CAME TO FIGHT THIS BATTLE. — GREAT NUMERICAL SUPERIORITY OF THE ENEMY.
— THE CONTEST AT THE STONE FENCE. — JACKSON FALLS BACK TO CEDAR CREEK. — MAGRU-
DER's line ON THE PENINSULA. — A FEARFUL CRISIS. — m'cLELLAN HELD IN CHECK BY
ELEVEN THOUSAND CONFEDERATES. — OUTWITTED AGAIN BY JOHNSTON. — RETREAT OF THE
CONFEDERATES UP THE PENINSULA. STRATEGIC MERIT OF THE MOVEMENT. — BATTLE OF
WILLIAMSBURG. — LONGSTREEt's DIVISION ENGAGED. — SUCCESS OF THE CONFEDERATES. —
M'oLELLAn's whole army in peril. HIS FLANK MOVEMENT ON JOHNSTON's RETREAT. —
ENGAGEMENT AT BARHAMSVILLE. THE LINE OF THE CHICKAHOMINY. JOHNSTON's BRIL-
LIANT STRATEGY. — EVACUATION OF NORFOLK. — DESTRUCTION OF THE VIRGINIA. — HER
LAST CHALLENGE TO THE ENEMY. — A GALLING SPECTACLE. — COMMODORE TATNALL ORDERS
HER DESTRUCTION. — A COURT OF INQUIRY. — NAVAL ENGAGEMENT AT DREWRy's BLUFF. —
A FEEBLE BARRIER TO RICHMOND. — REPULSE OF THE FEDERAL FLEET. — WHAT IT PROVED.
m'cLELLAN's INVESTMENT OF THE LINE OF THE CHICKAHOMINY. DEFENCES OF RICH-
MOND. — SCENES AROUND THE FEDERAL CAPITAL. — ALARM AND EXCITEMENT OF ITS PEO-
PLE. — THE EXODUS FROM RICHMOND. — PUBLIC MEETING IN THE CITY HALL. NOBLE RESO-
LUTION OF THE LEGISLATURE OF VIRGINIA. REANIMATION OF THE PEOPLE AND THE
AUTHORITIES. — PRESIDENT DAVIs' EARLY OPINION OF THE EFFECT OF THE FALL OF RICH-
MOND. — APPEALS OF THE RICHMOND PRESS. — JACKSON's CAMPAIGN IN THE VALLEY OF
VIRGINIA. — JACKSON DETERMINES ON THE AGGRESSIVE. — DISPOSITION OF THE FEDERAL
FORCES WEST OF THE BLUE RIDGE. — AFFAIR AT m'dOWELL. — JACKSON DECEIVES BANKS
— SURPRISES HIS REAR-GUARD AT PORT ROYAL. BANKS' RACE TO WINCHESTER. SCENES
OF RETREAT THROUGH WINCHESTER. BANKS' QUICK TIME TO THE POTOMAC. EXTENT OP
JACKSON's SUCCESS. FRUITS OF TWO DAYs' OPERATIONS OF THE CONFEDERATES. JACK-
SON PASSES BETWEEN THE COLUMNS OF FREMONT AND SHIELDS. DEATH OF TURNEB
ASHBT. — JACKSON's TRIBUTE TO HIM. — BATTLES OF CROSS KEYS AND PORT REPUBIIC —
EWELL DEFEATS FREMONT. — THE FIELD OF PORT REPUBLIC. — EWELl's ARRIVAL SAVES
THE DAY. — CRITICAL AND SPLENDID ACTION OF TWO VIRGINIA REGIMENTS. — CLOSE OF
THE VALLEY CAMPAIGN. — JACKSON's ALMOST MARVELLOUS SUCCESS. — HIS HALT AT
•weyer's cave.
262 THE LOST CAUSE,
In the first part of the year 1862, the Federal Government, with plana
fully matured, had under arms about six hundred thousand men ; more
titan one-third of whom were operating in the direction of Richmond.
"Wliat Gen. McClellan himself said of the vast and brilliant army with
wliieh he designed to capture the Confederate capital was not extravagant.
It was, indeed, " magnificent in material, admirable in dscipline and in-
struction, excellently equipped and armed." On March 1, 1862, the num-
ber of Federal troops in and about Washington had increased to 193,142,
fit for duty, with a grand aggregate of 221,987.
Such was the heavy and perilous force of the enemy that, in the spring
of 1862, hung on the northern frontier of Virginia. Let us see what was
in front of it on the Confederate line of defence. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston
had in the camps of Centreville and Manassas less than thirty thousand
men. These figures are from an official source. " Stonewall " Jachson had
been detached with eleven skeleton regiments to amuse the enemy in the
Shenandoah Yalley, passing rapidly between Banks and Shields, and
giving them the idea that he meditated a formidable movement. Such
was the force that in North Virginia stood in McClellan's path, and de-
terred him from a blow that at that time might have been fatal to the
Southern Confederacy.
It had been the idea of the "Washington authorities to despatch the
Confederacy by a combined movement in the winter. The order of Presi-
dent Lincoln for a general movement of the land and naval forces against
the Confederate positions on the 22d of February (Washington's birth-
day), directed that McClellan's army should advance for the immediate
object of seizing and occupying a point upon the railroad southwest of
Manassas Junction. But McClellan urged a different line of operations
on the Lower Rappahannock, obtained delay, and did not advance.
In the mean time, Gen. Johnston had not been an idle sjjectator of the
immense and overwhelming preparations of the enemy in his front. As
a commander he was sagacious, quick to apprehend, and had that peculiar
military reticence in connection with a sage manner and decisive action,
that obtained the confidence of his men instead of exciting criticism, or
alarming their suspicions. In the first winter months of 1862, he had de-
termined to change his line on the Potomac. All idea of off'ensive opera-
tions on it had long ago been abandoned. It had become necessary in
Gen. Johnston's opinion that the main body of the Confederate forces in
Virginia should be in supporting distance of the Army of the Peninsula,
so that, in the event of either being driven back, they might combine for
final resistance before Richmond.
During winter, Johnston had been quietly transporting his immense
stores towards the Rappahannock, removing every cannon that could be
Johnston's retreat. 263
spared, and filling tlie empty embrasures with hollow logs painted black,
which even at a few yards' distance much resembled thirty-two and sixty-
four pounders. Never were preparations for a retreat so quietly and skil-
fully made. So perfectly were all things arranged that all stores, baggage,
sick, material, and guns were removed far to the rear, before Johnston's
own men realized the possibility of a retreat. It was only as the dificreiit
brigades fell into line, and the main army defiled southward through
Fauquier County that the men discovered the movement to be a general
and not a partial one.
On the 8th of March, the Government at Washington issued a peremp-
tory order to McClellan to move for the new base of operations he de-
signed on the Chesapeake Bay, and to capture the Confederate batteiies on
the Potomac. The change in the situation which Johnston's skilful retreat
had effected was not known in "Washington. On the 9th of March
McClellan's army was in motion. All Washington was in expectation ;
it was known that the second " On-to-Richmond " had commenced, and
that the second grand army was about to pass its grand climacteric. At
night Fairfax Court-House was reached, and the grand army encamped
within a radius of two miles. At a late hour came the wonderful tidings
that Manassas and Centreville had been evacuated ! There was no enemy
there. But there was a great conflagration in full flame, bridges and
machine-shops just blown up, and other incendiary fires gleaming in the
distance, l^othing was left in the famous Confederate position ; it was
desolate, though frowning in fortified grandeur. Thus had been accom-
plished in the face of the enemy the most successful and complete evacu-
ation — the most secure and perfect retreat of which the history of the war
furnishes an example. Johnston had safely escaped with his entire right
and left wings ; he had securely carried off every gun and all his provi-
sions and munitions ; and he had blown up or otherwise destroyed every
bridge and culvert on turnpike and railroad along his route.*
When Johnston's army had crossed the Rappahannock, it was drawn
up in line, and waited a week for the enemy ; but McClellan refused the
challenge, and moved down the stream near the sea-board. To contract
• In Gen. McClellan's official report of this period, he seeks to convey the impression to the
reader that he was well aware of Johnston's evacuation, and only marched his troops to Manassas
that they might gain " some experience on the march and bivouac preparatory to the campaign, and
to get rid of the superfluous baggage and other impediments which accumulate round an army en-
camped for a long time in one locality." He continues : " A march to Manassas and bade could
produce no delay in embarking for the Lower Chesapeake, as the transports could not be ready for
some time, and it afforded a good intermediate step between the quiet and comparative comfort of
the camps round Washington and the rigours of active operations."
If Gen. McClellan had designed to have written something to be laughed at, he could not have
better succeeded than in the sentences quoted above.
THE T-OST CAUSE.
his left, Johnston fell back across the Eapidan, and increased the strength
of the right against all flanking manoeuvres. Large fleets of transports
were gathered at the month of the Eappahannock, but few knew their
object or destination, Johnston however divined it. He promptly took
the idea that the Federals, while making a show of force along the Lower
liappahannock, would not attack ; their object being to transport their
force with great celerity to the Peninsula, thinking to suprise Magriider at
Yorktown, and seize Kichmond before any troops could be marched to
oppose them.
He was right. On March 13, a council of war was assembled at Fair-
fax Conrt-House, by McClellan. It agreed on the following resolution :
" That the enemy, having retreated from Manassas to Gordonsville, behind
the Rappahannock and the Eapidan, it is the opinion of Generals command-
ing army corps that the operations to be carried on will be best undertaken
from Old Point Comfort between the York and James Eivers : provided,
1st, That the enemy's vessel Merrimac can be neutralized ; 2d, That the
means of transportation sufficient for an immediate transfer of the force to
its new base can be ready at Washington and Alexandria to move down
the Potomac ; and, 3d, That a naval auxiliary force can be had to silence,
or aid in silencing, the enemy's batteries on the Y^ork Eiver ; 4th, That
the force to be left to cover Washington shall be such as to give an entire
feeling of security for its safety from menace."
While the scene of the most important contest in Virginia was thus
being shifted, and Gen. Banks was transferring a heavy force from the
Shenandoah Yalley to take position at Centreville, in pursuance of
McClellan's plan for the protection of Washington, a battle unimportant
but bloody took place near Winchester.
BATTLE OF KEKNSTOWN.
Gen. Shields had been left at Winchester by Banks with a division and
some cavalry, and commanded, as he states in his official report, seven
thousand men of all arms. Ascertaining that " Stonewall " Jackson was at
New Market, he made a feint, pretended' to retreat on the 20tli of March,
and at night placed his force in a secluded position, two miles from Win-
chester on the Martinsburg road. This movement, and the masked posi-
tion of the enemy made an impression upon the inhabitants of Winchester
that Shields' army had left, and that nothing remained but a few regi-
ments to garrison the place. On the 22nd Ashby's cavalry drove m the
enemy's pickets, and discovered only a brigade. The next day Jackson
had moved his line near Ivernstown, prepared to give battle and expect-
BATTLE OF KEENSTOWN. 203
ing to find only a small force of tlie enemy at the point of attack. He
bad less than twenty-five hundred men. It will amuse the Southern
reader to find it stated in Gen. Shields' official report that Jackson had in
the engagement of Kernstown eleven thousand men, and was, therefore,
in superiour force.
The engagement between these unequal forces commenced al)0ut four
o'clock in the evening of the 23d of March, and terminated when night
closed upon the scene of conflict. Jackson's left flank, commanded by
Gen. Garnett, was finally turned, and forced back upon the centre, but only
after a most desperate and bloody encounter. A long stone fence ran across
an open field, which the enemy were endeavouring to reach. Federals
and Confederates were both in motion for this natural breast-work, when